When Parallel Lines Intersect
by Shiori-tan
Summary: Byakuran's involvement is never good for one's health. What starts off as an innocent headache ends up as another fiasco involving parallel worlds, strange new enemy famiglia and, for some reason, marshmallows. Tsuna just can't get a break, can he? OCs included. Mild shonen-ai.
1. With Pain Comes Marshmallows

**Disclaimer: I do not own KHR, never have and never will. This also counts for every single chapter that comes after this, so I don't have to repeat this.**

**Happy reading! :D**

* * *

**Chapter 1**

_**With Pain Comes Marshmallows**_

"Ow..." Tsuna felt it again, the searing pain in his head. He gripped the back of a chair for support, clutching his head as he waited for the pain to pass. Only, unlike the other times, the pain didn't die down. It didn't even after what was five minutes in reality, but seemed like years and years to Tsuna (years of torturous, head-splitting _pain_, goddammit).

"Shit," he cursed under his breath as his migraine not only refused to die down, but instead intensified. _The hell, it's been a few minutes already, why won't you just go away like you usually do?!_

It had started off innocently enough. Just a slight headache, which he attributed to stress and/or one too many knocks to the head from Reborn. Yeah, more likely the latter. But over the past few weeks it had intensified in both frequency and severity. No amount of Panadol or any other form of painkiller worked. Neither did soothing music, herbal tea or incense. All _that_ had got him was weird looks from the cashier at the convenience store. Not every day you see a seventeen year old teenage boy buying lavender tea and candles.

_Oh god, I'm turning into a girl._ He grimaced at the thought. _Getting vulgar too. I don't usually curse. But hell is this painful._

Suddenly, there was a sharp, burning spike of pain, causing Tsuna to gasp in surprise and his knees to buckle. He felt himself quickly sinking into unconsciousness, his poor body unable to withstand the hellish throbbing.

_Shit, shit, shit. Damn Reborn. If this is his fault I am so going to hunt him down and slaughter him, crazy-ass tutor from hell or not. _Tsuna's thoughts were uncharacteristically fierce as his mind went black.

Somewhere, a certain arcobaleno sneezed.

* * *

"Are you really sure about this? I-"

"Haha, of course I'm sure! It's such an amusing game I've thought up, now, isn't it?"

"It's not a game! Take this seriously! Do you know how much trou-MPFH!?"

"Ne, lighten up Shoichi-kun. Here, have a marshmallow!"

*_cough_**_splutter_*

"There there, you see? Marshmallows make everything better! Ah, that's right, can you go order another hundred packs for me? I think I'm running out."

_*cough**wheeze*_ "Running out?! We just had a shipment five days ago! Wait, don't change the topic like that! Do you even know the risks of travelling through-STOP HUMMING THAT STUPID THEME SONG OF YOURS, GODDAMMIT!"

"Uwa, Shoichi-kun got pissed!"

* * *

_Ran ran, ran ran, ran ran, Byakuran!_

* * *

Tsuna woke up to an unknown finger poking his cheek.

Firstly, he had realised the dreaded pain was gone, much to his relief. Then, slowly, he had become aware of a slim digit poking his left cheek repeatedly, and some happy giggling in the background.

Naturally, the young Decimo (who was still dame in all sense of the word) promptly screamed and shot up, flailing his arms in an attempt to distance himself from the owner of said appendage.

"Ne, ne, Tsu-chan's pretty lively!"

Upon hearing the familiar cheerful voice, his whole flailing body froze. Slowly, he looked up, half in hope and half in dread, to meet the gaze of a certain Byakuran Gesso.

Tsuna went into panic mode.

"B-b-byakuran! What are you doing here? No, wait, where the hell is here?" He practically screamed as he finally got a good look at his surroundings. The room (or space, or whatever) was completely, utterly pitch-black. There was no light source as far as Tsuna could tell, but he could see Byakuran in front of him as clear as day. He looked down and gulped.

His whole form was transparent, like his body had defied scientific logic and decided to become a solid form of water (or something. Tsuna never was that good at science) . He shakily raised his hand up, holding it out in front of his face and peering at it intently. Or rather, not exactly peering _at _it, but peering _through_ it. "And what the hell happened to me?!"

Byakuran simply ignored his frantic screaming and smiled at him mischievously. "Now now, suddenly Tsu-chan has lots and lots of questions to ask! Tsu-chan really is so cute!"

"Wha?! Wait, you're not answering any of my questions-HIIIEEE!" Byakuran, having gotten bored of Tsuna's blabbering, decided to pour his whole bag of marshmallows over the poor Decimo.

"Now, now. Calm down, Tsu-chan. Here, have a marshmallow. Now, listen up, 'kay, Tsu-chan? This," he gestured to the wide encompassing space of black (and black, and more black) with a grand sweeping motion. "This place is kinda a...connector, you would say? Yes, I guess you could call it that."

"Connector?" Tsuna was bewildered. This was getting ridiculous. At least Reborn's training sessions held some semblance of common sense. Somewhat. Ok, now that he thought about it...

"Hai, a connector between two parallel worlds." Byakuran remarked casually as he started building a tower of marshmallows.

Tsuna's jaw dropped. Parallel worlds? Wait, how could he say such a thing with that stupid goofy smile of his?

"Ne, you looked shocked Tsu-chan. Not to worry, the thing you're about to do isn't as life-threatening as the whole time travel thing you guys had. I hope."

Tsuna groaned at the memory. "What do you mean you hope?"

"Well, Shoichi-kun's part of the plan this time, so it shouldn't be too bad, right?" Tsuna groaned again. That didn't account for anything!

"Anyways," Byakuran started juggling his marshmallows. "You're gonna go there to train some really interesting people."

"Train?"

"Don't worry, you're going to have lots of fun! I assure you you'll find them _very_ amusing," Byakuran giggled and popped a sweet fluffy treat into his mouth. "Well, if you fail, Vongola in that world is basically doomed to perish, so you better do a good job, ne, Tsu-chan?...Hello? Tsuuu-chaaan?"

Tsuna, who had started seeing multiple Hibirds flying in circles around his head, abruptly snapped out of his reverie. "Huh, what?"

"Well, that's it for me! Hope you have lots of fun there Tsu-chan! Shoichi-kun and I are gonna have a blast watching you guys!...Well, maybe not Shoichi-kun..."

"Huh?"

"Ciao!" And with a cheerful wave of Byakuran's hand, the ground below Tsuna cracked and shattered into hundreds of shards, and Tsuna fell through the hole screaming his lungs out.

* * *

**Oh dear...they all turned out extremely OOC ._. I think I need more practice, but ah well. It's my first multichapter fanfic for KHR. It's my first multichapter fanfic for anything, actually, so I'm really excited! And I know, I know, the idea is kinda unoriginal (ok, really unoriginal) but I'll be taking pains to make it more unique later on, so watch out for later chapters!**

**...or I could end up failing epically, but watch out anyway.**

**Regarding the timeline this takes place in, it's probably when Tsuna and the gang are around 17 or 18, in high school. Somewhere there. As for the timeline in the parallel world, you'll just have to wait and see :D (that's code for: I haven't decided yet).**

**R&R!**


	2. Of Stones and Stupidity

**Happy reading!**

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**Chapter 2**

**_Of Stones and Stupidity_  
**

Darkness. Complete, absolute, never-ending darkness. Through it Tsuna fell and fell for what seemed like hours. Yet, his horrified, girlish scream never faltered, never wavered, until-

"HIEEEEE-OW!" With a glorious (and abrupt) crash, he promptly landed on a cruelly hard surface.

"Ow...ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" His arms and legs throbbed, body protesting against it's cruel mistreatment. Seriously, was the pain never going to end?

With a long-suffering moan, he struggled to push himself up and take a good look at his surroundings. Years under Reborn's tutelage together with plenty of fights gave the seemingly innocuous dame-Tsuna experience and wisdom beyond his young age. He knew now not to take safety and peace for granted as he once did; links to the Mafia were not without its disadvantages, after all. Caution, stealth, awareness of one's surroundings; all these skills were necessary if one wanted to avoid being hit by a 10-ton hammer belonging to a certain demon tutor from hell.

Although, his grand (and noisy) entrance did leave something to be desired. Dame-Tsuna was still dame after all.

He had landed hard, sending multiple desks and chairs toppling over and generally causing havoc in the once-neat room. Posters and random bits of paper, dislodged from their places-of-honour on various notice boards, were scattered across the floor, being blown to and fro from one end of the classroom to the other by the gentle breeze. The atmosphere, so peaceful, so _calming_, seemed to slow down his mental capacity and thought processes, and Tsuna had to think for a while before he finally realised where he was.

He had landed smack-dab in the middle of a classroom in Namimori Middle School.

Tsuna didn't know whether to be happy over finding himself in a familiar place where he could find people he knew, or be frustrated over finding himself in a familiar place where he could be found by people he knew. For all the confusion and lack of explanation, Tsuna had grasped only one essential point: he was now in a parallel world. Other than that, however, he knew zilch: nothing about how the people in this world treated him, nothing about who was a friend and who was an enemy. If only that bastard Byakuran had been clearer in his explanation.

Speaking of Byakuran...without him knowing, a piece of pretty violet paper had somehow appeared (magically, from the sky) and was gracefully fluttering down to meet him. It landed on his lap , and he stared at it for a few seconds, feeling a mixture of amusement and annoyance at Byakuran's antics, before finally deciding to pick it up and read it. More information couldn't hurt, right?

_Tsu-kun! Forgot to mention, how was your headache these past few weeks? Tsu-kun must've had a hard time, ne? Haha, I'll compensate you with marshmallows when you get back! Ne, but I'm sure you'll have lots of fun there, so that makes up for it right? So no marshmallows for you then. I'll eat your share for you :D_

_Ciao!_

Tsuna groaned and slammed his palm into his face in an epic face-palm. A certain giant marshmallow was so dead when he returned.

* * *

Following a wave of self-pity and angst which he drowned in, Tsuna decided to just sit there, not moving a muscle and simply staring blankly at the opposite wall (Takeshi had laughingly mentioned something about 'stoning' the last time the young Decimo had been caught like that. He had explained: Tsuna kind of resembled a stone: unmoving, unblinking and generally lifeless-and Tsuna had thought at the time that stones must live out a rather relaxing existence if that were true-and thus, Takeshi said, the action of just sitting there like a stone could be dubbed, for lack of a better word, 'stoning'. It had a ring of logic to it. But really, he was in roughly the same state when Reborn knocked him out with the hammer, and could that really still be considered 'stoning'?). However, after half an hour in that semi-conscious state, the common sense and logic that Reborn had (purportedly) ingrained in his student kicked in. He didn't know the situation in that world, but from what Byakuran had let out he could gather that Vongola was in trouble. Basically, he was a sitting duck for any enemy mafioso. If Reborn were with him, he would have already earned a few bullet wounds as a reward for his stupidity.

And thus, Sawada Tsunayoshi decided to get his tired, sore, self-pitiful ass of the floor to begin looking for a way out of this mess he had been dragged into.

He was relieved to find that the Namimori Middle in this world was not at all different from the Namimori Middle in his world; finding his way around would be much easier. Of course, the problem of being spotted by someone was still apparent, but it was already late in the afternoon, long past school dismissal time, and Tsuna felt that he was relatively safe. With a little bit of stealth and some frantic sprinting to avoid a couple of Discipline Committee members-dame-Tsuna could become a world-class sprinter if the need ever arose-he was successfully past the school gates, running towards Namimori Park as if his life depended on it. Which was usually the case when the Discipline Committee was involved.

Tsuna collapsed on a park bench, gulping down the fresh air like a starving beggar would gulp down food. He had planned to just sit there and rest for a while before planning out how to survive with 500 yen and some grape candy in his pocket.

Of course, he hadn't factored in a certain hitman Arcobaleno into that peaceful scenario, something he quickly learnt was a mistake as a bullet whizzed past his face without warning.

* * *

Reborn raised an eyebrow as his student-or what _looked_ like his student-jumped out of his seat, letting out a pathetic "HIEEEE!". This person even acted like his student too.

However, Reborn knew better. For one thing, when the infant had last seen Tsuna twenty minutes ago, he had been heading out to Gokudera's apartment for a study session. For another, although the disguise was almost perfect, there were discrepancies. This 'Tsuna' was taller, leaner; his hair was longer and less messy, and to top it all off he was dressed in the uniform of Namimori _High_ School.

"You obviously haven't done your research," Reborn scoffed, feeling increasingly irritated. If you were going to send spies, at least send decent ones. He hadn't enjoyed a good challenge for a long while.

The god-awful screaming (_damn, he's a good actor though, _Reborn thought with amusement) stopped abruptly, and the impostor spun around to face him with a panicked expression. "EH?! REBORN?!"

Reborn blinked, hiding his mild surprise behind expressionless black eyes. The enemy really did employ good actors.

Meanwhile, the "impostor" was currently spazzing out in front of him. _Shoot. Shoot, shoot, shoot. It's Reborn. It's. Freaking. Reborn. I'm gonna die. I'm so gonna die. This is just my luck. Thi-_

A bullet soared into the sky, and Tsuna screamed at the unexpected gunshot. "HIEEEEE! REBORN! I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU NOT TO RANDOMLY SHOOT LIKE THAT?!"

The infant in question stared at him, his lips pursed into a straight line. Tsuna wanted to wilt under his tutor's gaze, as Reborn stared intently at him for five, ten, fifteen minutes and damn, this was an exemplary example of 'stoning' and Takeshi would be prou-

"You're not acting."

_Huh?_

"Huh?" Tsuna voiced his thoughts out loud. "What acting? Who said I was acting?" The moment those words left his mouth, Tsuna wanted to bang his head against the tree. He had completely forgotten about the whole Byakuran-sending-me-to-a-parallel-world thing in wake of the various bullets shot at him. For about the hundredth time that day, he thanked God above that the Reborn of his world wasn't with him; his body would already be Swiss cheese.

But wait, that wasn't the main problem. The main problem was standing in front of him, in all of his forty-centimetre-fedora-wearing glory. He had to get out of this somehow.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

His intelligent remark was rewarded with a kick to his forehead.

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**This is kinda dry actually...mostly descriptive stuff and no real moving of plot. However, I did make an effort to make it longer, and I promise next chapter will see more action.**

**On a happier note, a big thank you to Seithr-Kairy, eclipsed flower, taci-chan, Crescent Marauder, The Neo Productions, codenumber6, and silent-insaneminako for favouriting/following this story :D And humongous thanks to eclipsed flower, for being the first reviewer. The support I've received from all of you really motivates me and I hope you will continue to stick with this story :)**

**R&R! **


	3. Straight Out of a Shoujo Manga

**A/N: IMPORTANT PLEASE READ.**

**I had two ways to go with the plot, but now I've finally settled which way I wanna do it, and I've chosen the plot with OCs in it. I repeat, there are OCs. This will NOT be a OC-centric fic, and the story should focus mainly on canon characters, but they will play an important role as the main antagonist. If any of you do not like fics with OCs, then please feel free to stop reading now.**

**Another thing. I have put in the summary that pairings remain undecided, however, what is confirmed is that there will be yaoi/shonen-ai. Again, romance will not be central to the plot, and there will be NO scenes that warrant a bump in the rating from T to M, but if any of you are uncomfortable with shonen-ai (eg. mild kissing scenes etc.), then please feel free to stop reading.**

**Thank you and happy reading! :D**

* * *

**Chapter 3**

**_Straight Out of a Shoujo Manga_**

"-and so that's the whole gist of the situation!" Byakuran exclaimed cheerfully, violet eyes sparkling in laughter and amusement. Too bad the person he was talking to didn't seem to share in his cheeriness.

"So let me get this straight. You and Shoichi created a new technology which allows one to travel across worlds."

"Hai!"

"And, without my knowledge or consent, or for that matter anyone's knowledge or consent, you sent my student to one of these parallel worlds."

"Yup!"

"Without telling him anything."

"Yosh!"

"To train people whose identities you will not reveal."

"That's correct!"

...

"Die, you pathetic marshmallow-loving imbecile."

Somewhere, someplace, the sound of a gunshot could clearly be heard.

* * *

An awkward silence pervaded the air as Tsuna walked down the street, trying to reign in the urge to start screaming hysterically. Which was pretty hard for dame-Tsuna, considering that Reborn was trailing behind him, glaring daggers at the poor boy. Being the ever professional and sensible hitman, Reborn had insisted on Tsuna walking ahead of him in order to prevent a literal stab in the back. The person in front of him was still a mystery, and of course, Reborn had never liked things that he did not understand.

Why did it confuse Reborn so much? This..._person_ not only resembled his student, but also gave off that particular aura of (what Reborn liked to call it) dame-ness. Not to mention, the fact that Tsuna-no, this_ person_-seemed to know the exact way to the Sawada household did nothing to soothe his suspicions. In fact, his uneasiness increased twofold. This person even knew things that Tsuna would normally know, little details like the shortcut between a few market stalls and the low hanging branch on a particular turn. It was completely unprecedented, and if this guy was acting, well then _damn_ was he good at his job (and in fact, Reborn would have tried to recruit him for Tsuna's family if the situation was not so...unusual).

He would have to be careful; for the first time in a long while, Reborn was well and truly confused, and quite truthfully that frightened him a little bit (yes, the great almighty Reborn_ could_ get scared). For all that it was worth, inside their hearts, the unnatural Arcobaleno were, contrary to popular belief, still human, still capable of feeling; the feeling of not knowing, and the feeling of helplessness that came with it, was quite foreign to the infant tutor, so used was he to knowing anything and everything.

Unbeknownst to Reborn, the person who had gotten him caught in such an emotional dilemma was, behind his (sort of) calm facade, still trying to resist the urge to drop convulsing to the ground.

_Oh my god. Oh my freaking god. I'm dead. I'm so dead. Reborn's gonna kill me. What the hell was I thinking? Of course he would be suspicious, to him I look exactly like his student, which should not be freaking possible, and doesn't that just freaking scream suspicious?! Damn, damn, damn, I'm so dead, I'm so freaking dead, I'm-_

"Oi, we're here."

"H-huh? Wha?" Tsuna said rather intelligently, almost jumping up in shock. It seemed that in the midst of his mental rants, he had unknowingly walked straight past their destination. He spun around to face the familiar building which he called home.

Immediately, he noticed something was off. His house seemed different, like it was...neater? Yeah, definitely neater. The black sooty scorch marks which had accumulated over time all over the walls of the house and on the yard (courtesy of a certain bovine and his explosives) were no longer present. Instead, the house were immaculately clean, walls a pure white and lawn trimmed neatly, and to Tsuna's eyes, even seemed to sparkle as it basked in its superior cleanliness. He could practically see flowers and hearts popping out on a pastel pink background a la stereotypical shoujo manga style.

As the young Decimo stood outside ogling his suddenly pristine home, a gorgeous young Italian woman threw open the door and rushed towards Reborn and-oh my dear God was that a pink frilly dress she was wearing?! Tsuna's jaw dropped as he watched Bianchi (yes, Bianchi) pick up Reborn and envelope him in what looked like a bone-crushing embrace, her ornately lacey skirts swishing around her knees. "Dearest Reborn! I knew your momentary departure could not stand in the way of our blossoming romance!"

_...What the hell?!_ Tsuna was still gaping, his whole body frozen due to the shock of seeing the cool, sleek, grown-up Bianchi dressed in what looked to him like a pastry gone wrong. The Bianchi he knew wouldn't, for the life of her, wear pink. Or lace. Or ribbons. Or frilly dresses. Or worse, all of the above combined (horrors).

"For a heart-stopping moment, I feared our story would turn into a tragedy the likes of Romeo and Juliet, lovers destined to be together but pulled apart by fate!" She sighed dramatically. "But of course, I knew my dearest, most beloved Reborn wouldn't let me down! My very own Prince Charming!" She squealed. _Squealed_.

The urge to drop, convulsing, to the ground was coming back again, but Tsuna exercised remarkable self-control and instead settled for burying his head in his hands, groaning and praying to the Gods above for mercy, or at least for Bianchi to change out of that horrendous confectionery-like garment.

His groans attracted the attention of Bianchi, who slackened her vice-like grip on Reborn and turned to face him. Tsuna gulped, remembering the infant's first reaction to him and not looking forward to what would come next.

Bianchi's eyes narrowed as Tsuna squirmed under her gaze. "Darling Reborn?"

"Hmm?"

"Who is this Tsuna look-alike? Is it a spy? Should I take him out for you?" Tsuna's eyes widened. _Oh God, Reborn, please say no, please say no, please say-_

"Be my guest." _Crap._

At his words, Bianchi lovingly set down her beloved on the ground, and straightened to meet Tsuna's eyes, a dark and menacing aura (akin to the one she radiated upon sighting Romeo's face) surrounding her. Tsuna gulped as, out of nowhere, platters full of poison cooking pastries and desserts appeared on her arms.

"Taste my poison cooking."

"H-H-HIIIEEEEEE! WAIT, BIANCHI-SAN, I CAN EXPLAIN!" Tsuna frantically waved his arms about as he backed away from the woman, his mind panicking and calculating the chances of a successful escape (which, unfortunately, were almost zero to none).

At his remarkably dame shriek, Bianchi paused her advancement, eyes widening in surprise at the teen's resemblance to the Tsunayoshi she knew. "Reborn..."

Said infant pulled his fedora down, shadowing his eyes further. "Hmm. I know." He looked up sharply, gaze piercing straight through Tsuna (who was at the moment trying not to hyperventilate). "He acts well."

"H-huh?!"

Leon transformed into a gun in Reborn's hand as Bianchi looked on, a look of admiration in her sparkling irises. "Who are you? Explain now, or you won't be explaining anything to anyone ever again."

"H-HIEE?! WAIT! I'M NOT A SPY OR ANYTHING!" Tsuna shrieked as the gun was pointed at him. _I don't want to die_, he sobbed internally.

Reborn gritted his teeth at the boy's reaction, so similar how his student would have reacted. "Then?"

Tsuna took deep breaths, deep calming breaths. He knew that the only way he could sound convincing was if he stopped spazzing out in front of Reborn and actually respond like a normal human. "I-I'm-"

He was interrupted by a loud, girlish shriek from behind. "HIIIIEEEEE?! WHAT THE HELL?!" His eyes widened, and his heart stopped for a moment. Filled with dread, he spun around just in time to see a fifteen year old version of himself collapse in a dead faint.

* * *

**If any of you did not read the above message (which I fervently hope you did), in short I shall be including OCs and mild yaoi/shonen-ai in this fic. Any more details can be found in the first A/N right at the top. **

**On a less serious note, there was more action right? Right? ._. Well, I hope. I'm not quite sure what's considered action, but it's not as nonsensically random as the previous chappie was. There WAS supposed to be more of a moving along in terms of plot, but I underestimated just how long one meeting would take to write. Ah well.**

**How do you like Bianchi? XD I had fun trying to write her as a lovesick teenager, which is what she is essentially. Lovesick, I mean. Not a teenager. I think. Kinda. Well, I had fun writing her anyway.**

**But the real drama shall come next (hopefully). What's gonna happen now that Tsuna and Tsuna finally cross paths? *dramatic music playing in the background* **

**Anyways, thanks to everyone who favourited, reviewed, or followed! I'm currently too lazy to copy and paste everyone's names here, but rest assured, I really appreciate all the support and love :D **

**Also, shameless advertising: please go check out a one-shot I wrote called Satisfaction & Loneliness. It's 6918 (for all the fangirls XD not a lot of romance though ._.) and was kinda experimental, but I hope you guys can find the time to read it. You can find it on my profile, or on this link: /s/8632242/1/ Satisfaction-Loneliness (add www. fanfiction. net in the front after removing the spaces) . **

**Again, thank you for reading this! :D**

**R&R please! Reviews feed the plot bunnies!**


	4. An Unexpectedly Fierce Rain

**Warnings: Swearing courtesy of, of all people, Yamamoto Takeshi (yes, you read right)**

**Happy reading! :D**

* * *

**Chapter 4**

**_An Unexpectedly Fierce Rain_**

When you get stuck in a parallel universe, and your alternate self freaks out and faints before your very eyes, what would you do?

In Tsuna's case, it would be to freak out along with him.

"H-H-HIIEEEEEEEE!? OH MY GOD! HE FAINTED! IS HE OKAY?!" Tsuna wanted to hyperventilate, and somewhere in the back of his frantic mind he felt a vague sense of envy towards his alternate self for being able to skip out on this whole mess he was now being put through.

But no! He was being mean! His alternate self just fainted, for goodness sakes! He rushed over to check on his condition, but found that two people had already beat him to it. When Tsuna's muddled brain finally registered who it was, he couldn't help but feel instinctively relieved.

Over the few years after Reborn came, Tsuna's regrettably low self-esteem had been boosted and his hero-complex cured (relatively...ok, maybe not really) with the help of his guardians, and _finally _dame-Tsuna had grown confident in calling them _friends_, equals whom he could rely on as much as they relied on him, rather than always protecting them without worrying about himself. And around his friends, especially Takeshi and Hayato who were almost always there with him, he felt a sense of security, a sense of trust; it was a special bond between the Decimo's guardians that no one could come close to (and, of course, Reborn would always credit himself for this).

But _this_ felt different somehow; not only was Tsuna's hyper-intuition ringing alarm bells, he knew his Storm and Rain guardians well enough to sense that something was off. Which was why, when Takeshi leapt up and, with a feral snarl, charged at him with his katana, Tsuna was-unconsciously, at least-kind of prepared, easily side-stepping the baseball player while at the same time entering Dying Will Mode (yes, he could enter it without the pills-Reborn's Spartan training did pay off after all). He was honestly very unprepared for their reactions. Worst case scenario, he would have to freeze Takeshi with Zero Point Breakthrough to prevent anyone getting hurt.

Thankfully though, his ever reliable Storm Guardian (whether in this world or the next) stepped in.

"No! Yamamoto!" Hayato lunged for his friend and grabbed his arms to stop him from having a go at Tsuna with his katana. "You can't!"

"What the shit?" Takeshi growled out. "Let go, you bastard."

"You can't! We don't know who he is. He could be inno-"

"Innocent?! He looks exactly like Tsuna, don't kid with me! He's obviously some sort of spy!" He elbowed Hayato in the gut, causing the fearful looking bomber to gasp in pain and quickly let go. Takeshi took the chance to lunge forward towards Tsuna again, fully intent on piercing him with his sword.

Tsuna just stood there as Takeshi charged, assessing all his options at lightning speed. Takeshi looked really angry, and that scared even the Hyper Dying Will Mode Tsuna a little: seeing the normally cheerful Rain Guardian get so angry. Even if he stopped his attack without hurting him, he might get even angrier and end up hurting himself-Tsuna honestly didn't know what to expect anymore. The only way would be Zero Point Breakthrough...just a temporary freezing wouldn't hurt him too bad, right? Promising to apologise to the Rain Guardian later, Tsuna got into position and-_SHIT!_ _My gloves!_

His eyes widened. Said gloves were currently on the dining room table back in his world, where he had last passed out from pain. Tsuna would have cursed himself and his idiocy if the situation had allowed. Without his gloves...

Takeshi was already a few steps away. Hayato had recovered from shock and was now scrambling to stop the swordsman, but he was way too slow. "Yamamoto, wait! Even Juudaime wouldn't-"

He had no choice. Muttering a quick apology, he lunged, grabbing Takeshi's wrist before the Guardian even had time to react, twisting his arm to disarm him and delivering a quick but forceful kick to his shins.

The shock didn't even register on Takeshi's face yet as he fell to his knees, sword clattering noisily to the ground beside him.

Everyone was completely, absolutely speechless. Hayato was outright gaping, Bianchi's eyes looked like they were about to pop out of her face, and Tsuna's alternate self was still lying on the ground passed out.

Tsuna blinked a few times, wordlessly, the Dying Will flame burning proudly on his forehead, his face a picture perfect mask of calm. Inside though, he was freaking out-again.

_OH MY GOD OH MY GOD I JUST ATTACKED TAKESHI-KUN! HOW COULD I?! WHAT SORT OF FRIEND AM I!? OH MY GOD I'M A TERRIBLE FRIEND, I FEEL HORRIBLE, WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING?!_

Instead of screaming all of that out loud, he simply stretched out a hand for Takeshi to take. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you."

Instead of taking his hand with a laugh and a smile like Takeshi would have normally done, _this _Takeshi snarled and leapt to his feet without Tsuna's help. "The hell? What the shit do you think you're doing, you fu-"

"Wait, Yamamo-"

*POOF*

A burst of snowy white smoke interrupted all the noise as everyone started coughing and wheezing due to inhaling the excess smoke particles.

Except Reborn of course. Because he was way too cool for that.

Even before the smoke cleared, Tsuna could sense the person-or rather, people- hidden amidst the fog, and he could feel his mood being lifted already after the horrible experience of having to strike down Takeshi. Immediately, his Dying Will Flame started to flicker out as he felt that familiar sense of security come back to him, and he took a few steps forward into the smoke in anticipation.

"JUUDAIME!'

"Tsuna!"

Tsuna's eyes widened as he was tackled by his Storm Guardian in a hug, and it took a split second before he relaxed and returned it. He could see Takeshi jogging towards them, chuckling happily.

Almost as soon as he had tackled his Juudaime, he let go, dropping into a ninety degree bow. "Juudaime! My deepest apologies for touching you so familiarly, however I was just relieved to see you and-"

"Haha, it's fine Hayato-kun, really," Tsuna reassured his friend as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. At least he had stopped prostrating himself before Tsuna at least a year back-that had been even _harder_ to handle.

"Maa, maa, lighten up Haya-kun! I'm sure Tsuna doesn't mind, right Tsuna?" Takeshi said laughingly, a familiar smile on his face as he patted Tsuna on the back. "Though we were really worried about you when Reborn told us Byakuran had kidnapped you."

"Eh? He said wha-"

"You stupid baseball idiot! Don't act so insolent around the Tenth! And who gave you the permission to call me by that ridiculous nickname?!"

"Maa, maa, you mean Haya-chan? Haha, but Haya-chan suits Haya-chan, doesn't it?"

"Y-you fucking idiot! Do you want to die?!"

"Wa-wait! Hayato-kun! Takeshi-kun! Don't fight here!" Tsuna wailed as he watched the rather one-sided argument going on between two of his guardians. Immediately Hayato extinguished his dynamite. "I'm sorry, Juudaime! It's just that this stupid baseball idiot is being irritating, but if the Tenth says so, then I shall endure it!"

"Haha, sorry Tsuna. We got a bit carried away, didn't we?" Takeshi said with a laugh.

"You idiot, it's not _we_. I'm not a baseball idiot like you," Hayato snapped, a scowl in place.

"Maa, maa, that's kinda mean, Haya-chan."

"You-"

*BANG*

Everyone flinched at the sound of the gunshot, even the people who had been staring dumbfounded and speechless at the arguing Guardians until that moment.

"Hate to interrupt your touching reunion," Reborn said, his Leon gun in hand. "However, we still need to carry my dame-student inside." His dame-student, who was currently still lying passed out on the floor. "And then," he said, his eyes shooting daggers at the three seventeen year olds, all of whom should _not_ be in this world, if his theory was correct.

"_And then_, I'd like to hear from you three."

* * *

**Fail action scene is fail :q **

**Thanks to everyone who favourited, reviewed and followed the previous chapter! I'm really happy :)**

**Shameless self-advertising: check out my new one-shot, Partial Resolution, on my profile or on this link www. fanfiction s/8648928/1/ Partial-Resolution (remove the spaces)**

**Again, thanks for reading!**

**R&R please!**


	5. When High-Heels Fly

**I never thought about this until I started writing this chapter, which was why I felt ready to bang my head against the desk and start sobbing, but anyway. The question was, how exactly would I differentiate with the canon people and the AU people if they all have the same names? Which is why I have come up with a (not-so) excellent and easy to understand system. Hopefully.**

**Well, anyway, I decided that the canon people will be called by their first names (this corresponds nicely to the fact that Tsuna has already gotten used to calling everyone by their first names anyway), and the AU people shall be called with their last names. For example, AU is Hibari, Sasagawa and Gokudera, while canon is Kyoya, Ryohei and Hayato respectively.**

**There will be exceptions, namely:**

**Sawada Tsunayoshi- Due to the oddity of having to call AU!Tsuna Sawada, I decided that he would instead be called Tsunayoshi. Canon will be called Tsuna.**

**Lambo- Again, it's kinda odd to have everyone calling him Bovino, thus I shall make something up by the time the next chapter rolls around. It'll probably be some stupid nicknames that Tsuna comes up with, like Irritating Lambo and Non-Irritating Lambo. Or something.**

**Chrome Dokuro- Again, it's kinda odd to call her Dokuro. Thus, I went back to miraculously work some miracles on my plot. Canon will still be called Chrome, and AU will be called Nagi. Reasons shall be revealed...later XD**

**Reborn- It's pretty obvious he has no last name...so...I shall rely on someone's natural stupidity/genius for this...maybe Lambo can help ._.**

**Anyway, some like Bianchi, Fuuta, I-Pin shall be referred to as per normal because those in the canon world won't be transported, due to it being completely unnecessary. So whenever I refer to them, just assume I'm referring to those in AU unless otherwise stated.**

**Warnings: Cursing, extreme OOC-ness (this is kinda obvious), and Tsuna spasming whenever possible.**

**Happy reading! :D**

* * *

**Chapter 5**

**_When High-Heels Fly and Things Stop Exploding_**

"-and thus, we have sent a small squad to check up on the unusual bursts of Dying Will flames detected just half an hour ago at Namimori, which is the known territory of Vongola Decimo."

"Hey! Since we're sending a team there, shouldn't I just go and finish them off already?"

A soft sigh. "Shut up, Clara."

"OI! DON'T ACT COCKY, YOU BLOODY-"

"Clara."

"Y-yes, Boss. I'll keep quiet."

"You know your ears are red right now?"

"T-that-! A-anyway, when's the squad gonna get there?"

"Roughly? Well, we still have to make arrangements, so they should arrive in Japan in two days' time."

"Two? Hah, those bastards are fucking slow."

"Right, Clara, like you can go any faster. Let me guess, you have a magical broomstick to ride all the way to Namimori?"

"THAT'S IT, I'M GONNA-"

"Ahem. Loreto, please stop provoking her, she's rather sensitive."

"WHA-"

"Clara, I'm sending you there to lead the squad. That alright with you, Boss?"

"Haa...well, just don't kill any of the Vongola, alright? Especially the Decimo...now _that _one is my prey, and mine alone."

"And civilians?"

"Whatever you see fit."

"T-thank you Boss! I'll definitely do you proud!"

* * *

Reborn was many things: mafioso, hitman, baby, tutor, coffee aficionado.

But he was most definitely not a very good medic. Which could clearly be seen when he tried to cure a concussion with a hit to the head (and using his infamous 10-ton hammer, no less).

Thankfully, before Tsuna could hyperventilate any further, Bianchi had assured her most dearest beloved that yes, _another _knock to the head would be _very_ detrimental for his student's health, and some pain killers coupled with sleep would work much better.

To which the hitman had replied that no, he wasn't trying to cure the concussion, he was trying to wake up his dame-student, because he didn't deserve any sleep after that exemplary show of uselessness, and besides pain killers were a luxury that soon-to-be Mafia bosses did not deserve.

Just as Tsuna was about to start having spasms, Takeshi had laughingly suggested bringing him in and letting Nana work her magic, and with Reborn's grudging agreement and Hayato's and Yamamoto's loud protests of "OI, BASEBALL IDIOT/FUCKED UP OTHER ME" he slung Tsunayoshi over his shoulders and carried him into the house, Tsuna and Gokudera trailing behind silently.

"Ah, Tsu-kun, is that you? I made cookies for everyone and...ah?" Even Nana, the sweet lovable air head that she was, couldn't help her jaw from dropping when she saw the motley crew enter her house. Of course, if she hadn't acted shocked over seeing her son and his friends _and _their carbon copies enter the house then well, air-headed that she was, an appointment with the psychiatrist (or optometrist) was needed.

Cheerily ignoring the gaping looks and loud protests, Takeshi walked over and laid Tsunayoshi down on the couch, and turned to face Nana. "Maa, maa, seems like he knocked his head a little too hard. Would there be any medicine or something to help?"

"A-ah...sure," Nana said, recovering from her initial surprise. "I think we have some Panadol. Would you like some sniffing salts to get Tsu-kun to wake up?"

"That would be great, Mama. Could you take care of Tsuna while we have a talk in the dining room? And send him in when he wakes up."

"Hai! Sure, Reborn-kun." And with that she ushered them into the kitchen, told them to enjoy the cookies, and tottered off to fuss over her unconscious son, all the while with her usual oblivious smile.

And that was when things turned awkward. For Tsuna, at least.

All the guardians from the parallel world sat on the right side of the table, with all the guardians from this world sitting on the left, and with Reborn at the head (of course). This forced them to face each other, which resulted in the utterly mortifying awkwardness.

Yamamoto and Hayato were glaring daggers at each other, like wild crazed dogs gearing up for a fight. The killer intent was so strong that Tsuna wanted to flinch.

Takeshi had that idiotic smile on his face, as he cocked his head to one side and observed the two in front of him curiously.

Gokudera didn't seem to know what to do. His head was swivelling back and forth between Yamamoto to Hayato to Tsuna, and back again, as if pleading with Tsuna to do something before the one of them snapped and all hell broke loose, to which Tsuna wanted to sob back that no, like hell he was going to risk his life like that, Vongola Decimo or not.

Bianchi was happily arranging some cookies on a plate into a heart-shaped formation and fiddling with the espresso machine, all the while cooing softly about "afternoon tea made with love for darling Reborn." Tsuna could practically see the hearts popping out around her.

Darling Reborn was keeping silent, quietly observing the group of teenagers. Tsuna had just decided that he liked this arrangement quite fine if he wouldn't get shot, when Reborn finally spoke up.

"I called the other guardians."

Immediately, five heads turned to face him. Tsuna managed an intelligent "H-huh? B-but, how?" _You haven't moved for the past minute!_

"I have my ways." _Oh...you know what, don't tell me. I kinda don't wanna know anymore._

Bianchi squealed, almost toppling over the whirring coffee maker on the counter. "I knew it! Reborn's so cool!"

Hayato paled as he finally noticed his sister for the first time (Yamamoto had preoccupied him a bit too much). Over the past two years, he had grown out of his...condition, and had stopped collapsing like some terminally ill person every time he looked at Bianchi. Not that he particularly liked being around her, of course, but he wasn't acting like a total wuss when push came to shove either. However, this sort of Bianchi was just...Tsuna, though amused by the horrified expression on Hayato's face, couldn't help but feel pity for his friend, and Takeshi was trying his best to keep himself from laughing (and failing. Miserably).

Gokudera simply sighed, used to his sister's antics. "Aneki, please don't destroy anything else here. Nana-san will have a difficult time."

"Hmph. You're such an insolent little brother, as always. Don't you know that true love is the purest of all emotions, and should be expressed in whatever-"

Before she could continue her rant on the joys and expressions of love, there was a loud shriek, a thump and a crash, and suddenly a person came tumbling into the dining room, tripping over his feet and landing face first on the floor.

With a groan Tsunayoshi pushed himself up, only to find seven pairs of eyes all trained on him. When he saw who owned three of those said pair of eyes, he started shrieking again. "H-HIEEEE? WHAT IS THIS, REBORN? ARE THEY SOME KINDA-HIEEEEE, DON'T SHOOT BULLETS IN THE HOUSE!"

"Dame-Tsuna, you're worsening my headache, shut up."

"E-ehhh? Shouldn't I be the one having a headache?" Tsunayoshi was bordering hysterical until Gokudera approached him and helped him up.

"J-juudaime, I'm sure Reborn-san has an explanation for all this right?" When there was no response from the infant, Gokudera nervously continued. "Ah, um, anyway, why don't you sit down first. Once the rest come, Reborn-san will explain to us what this is all about, right Reborn-san?"

"T-the rest? Oh no, you mean-"

Right on cue, something (or someone) tumbled into the dining room, straight into Tsunayoshi. "Tsuna-nii! You're back!"

Tsuna's, Takeshi's, and Hayato's jaws all dropped simultaneously, which would have been funny if the situation hadn't been so...so...forget it, the situation was indescribable. For what was in front of their eyes at that instant, hugging Tsunayoshi while chattering happily about something or other, was none other than the irritating cow Lambo Bovino.

Except this wasn't _their_ Lambo. This Lambo was...well, for lack of a better word...normal? For one, he was actually wearing _normal _clothes, not the ridiculous cow suit that Tsuna had gotten used to seeing on a daily basis. Also, though his afro was still there, it was less glaringly in-your-face obvious, and was much neater and tamer. There were no cuts or bruises or dirt covering his whole body.

And most importantly...

He wasn't crying.

He wasn't whining.

He wasn't shouting.

He wasn't screaming for food or grape candies.

He wasn't throwing random explosives around.

He wasn't pissing the hell out of everyone, especially Hayato (and thank God for that).

Lambo Bovino was acting like a _normal five-year-old_.

Tsuna wanted to start crying tears of joy. Just as his eyes started watering and a few droplets managed to seep their way out, there was a furious shriek, coupled with a crash, which caused both Tsuna and Tsunayoshi to startle and jump with a small "Eep!".

The crash was followed by the sound of a door slamming open, and a few angry voices. Everyone in the dining room could only blink as, with a frustrated yell, something red shot through the door in a blur and landed on the dining table, smack-dab in front of Reborn.

It was a high-heel.

Tsuna could feel his joy slowly dissipating as the angry voices got closer, close enough to be vaguely recognisable. If he had turned around in the midst of his growing depression to look, he would have seen his two best-friends with identical "what-the-fucking-fuck-is-this-shit" expressions on their faces. Yes, even Takeshi.

For what stormed in at that very moment was Chrome Dokuro, bare-foot and angrily muttering something about "idiotic, hare-brained _monkeys _who can't even see where their foot is stepping on", a single cherry red high-heel in hand.

* * *

**Sorry for the slightly long wait for this chappie, but real life is catching up to me, so I think it's back to weekly updates :(**

**Well, I hoped everyone read the extremely long rant above because this would be nigh impossible to understand if you didn't. If you did not and attempted to read anyway, please please please, scroll back up to read it, and re-read this chapter.**

**Anyways...AU!Lambo and Nagi appear! Although Nagi only gets very little screen-time... Oh yes, as to why she is still referred to as Chrome Dokuro despite my very long rant above, remember that they haven't had proper introductions yet, and no real plan whatsoever has to how to deal with this, so it's only natural for a bit of confusion. **

**I also got a question about Tsuna's gloves and whether he had his Vongola Gear. Well, he has his Vongola Gear, but I thought it would be way too overkill to use it on Yamamoto, so I didn't mention it. And as for his gloves...that shall be revealed in due time ;)**

**Oh yes, the OCs appear too! Hahaha...I hope they don't turn out too mary-sue-ish...was it a bit confusing? I didn't give them a full introduction and left two of them nameless (as of now) because I want to flesh them out later. Although, again, let me reiterate that they will not be the main focus, but even so I hope you grow to like them :)**

**Now...time for my grand thank-you section! :DDD *loud cheers in background* I've been saving up my emails for when I finally have enough energy to do this. So...MUAHAHAHA!...let us begin.**

**Followers:**

**BleachedShadow; Crescent Marauder; Eovin; Hibird666; Lunakatsuma; Mischievously; Reborn-Story-Reader ; StardustDreams; Tegan Shade; The Neo Productions; XxShadowfangxX; 550; codenumber6; silent-insaneminako**

**Favourites:**

**BleachedShadow; FinalXFantasy91; Hibird666; KuroShiroNeko-chan; Magicnightstar reader; Reborn-Story-Reader; Seithr-Kairy; XxShadowfangxX; amy0213; angelic-naru1; eclipsed flower; taci-chan **

**Reviews:**

**Katie(guest); StardustDreams; XxShadowfangxX; eclipsed flower; BleachedShadow; 550; femaleJoey; aderu-chan**

**Okay, it turned out less grand than I expected...in my defence, it seemed longer when I had to manually type it in, but anyway, a big big THANK YOU to everyone who has read, followed, favourited and reviewed this humble story of mine! :DDDD Your support and motivation spurs me on to continue, your criticism and advice has spurred me on to improve, and I'll definitely continue trying my best! **

**R&R please! Reviews make the world go round! :D**


	6. Reborn's Death Glare of Doom

**Happy reading! :D**

* * *

**Chapter 6**

**_Reborn's Death Glare of Doom_**

If you had asked Tsuna a few days ago whether one would see Chrome Dokuro, his gentle Mist Guardian, stomping around in expensive designer clothing (with_ high-heels_, what more) and generally being loud, arrogant and an absolute brat, he would have laughed in your face and/or referred you to Shamal for a checkup.

As it was, Tsuna sort of needed that checkup, judging by the nauseous feeling he was experiencing as he looked at (what he thought to be) Chrome.

"N-Nagi-san," Tsunayoshi stammered nervously. "Um, what exactly's the problem-"

"The problem?" Nagi spat out venomously. "The _problem_, dear boss, is that harebrained, _idiotic _brat who just ruined my favourite pair of shoes."

"Ah...um, well-"

"Do you _know_ how much this cost? It's freaking Louboutins, for God's sake!"

"Um, that is-"

"My God! I swear I am so gonna kill-"

"-to...say..."

"-that little piece of-of..GAH! Exclusive, brand-name, thousand-dollar heels. Gone! Just because of one moron and his two left feet!" Nagi stomped her heel-less foot on the ground in frustration, a scowl marring her pretty features.

"Er, by idiot, who exactly are you...?"

"That Hibari Kyoya of course, who-"

_CRASH!_ Oops, speak of the devil.

Splayed on the floor at the doorway, muttering something under his breath as he picked himself up, was Hibari.

Nagi stifled back a laugh. "Of course, no other person than this clumsy idiot could-" Just before she could continue, Hibari jumped up, flustered and red in the face. "Shut up! T-that was just an accident!"

"_Right_," Nagi taunted. "Just like all seven hundred and fifty six accidents you've had since-"

"W-wha?! J-just shut up, you don't have-"

"N-Nagi-san," Tsunayoshi rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Um, please don't bully Hibari-kun."

"Well, if he can't even give a intelligible response, then he kinda deserves it."

"Shut up! I'll bite you to death!"

Snicker. "Ha. Like you can. Mukuro-sama will-"

"Shut up, dammit!"

_Ok, that's it._ "EEEENNNNNOOOUUUGGGHHHH!" Tsuna went into panicked-boss mode, standing up so fast that his seat went flying and slamming his palm down onto the table with such force that everyone jumped. Beside him, Takeshi breathed a sigh of relief, cheerful smile back in place; Hayato was looking up with awe at his boss, eyes glistening with unshed tears of pride.

Tsuna, though, continued on with his panicked ranting-there was only so much dame-Tsuna could take before he snapped, and this. Was. it. Damn. It. "I've had it! What the hell is going on here? Because the last time _I _checked, Hayato," he pointed at Gokudera, who looked bewildered. "Was _not _some mild-mannered guy acting like a kicked puppy."

"Takeshi was _not _like some violent delinquent straight out of a gangster movie."

"Bianchi was _most definitely not_ acting like a girly, love-struck teenager."

"Lambo, for all I know, is currently playing with his explosives and racking up mind-boggling damage expenses, and _not _sitting here like a well-behaved kid which he most definitely is not."

"_Kyoya_ was not...was not...was not _this_, dammit, whatever _this _is! And most importantly, the last time I checked there wasn't two of me!" Tsuna finished his frantic rant and collapsed, panting, back into his seat, as Takeshi laughed good-naturedly, Hayato spewed nonsense about "how admirable Juudaime is", and everyone else just stared at him like he'd sprouted two heads. Which would have been less surprising than what he just did.

As Tsuna slowly recovered, everyone continued to stare at him like he was some strange alien for the next five minutes (Hayato and Takeshi, meanwhile, had started arguing again, like that was anything unusual). He was slowly starting to regret blowing up like that, but he had an excuse, for Christ's sake. _Anyone would lose it after seeing _the _Hibari Kyoya acting like some tsundere from a shoujo manga. And _again _with the shoujo mangas_, Tsuna thought miserably as he slowly wilted under everyone's gazes, which showed no signs of wavering. Reborn's especially, was particularly filled with killer intent. _Damn, Byakuran, I'm so going to come back and haunt you if I die here, you marshamllow fre-_

"Oh ho! You look like you're cursing me right now, Tsu-chan!"

Tsuna jumped up with a loud shriek, almost hitting Byakuran's chin with his shoulder. Thankfully, he had stepped back just in time, and watched with amusement twinkling in his eyes as Tsuna tripped over a chair leg and came crashing to the floor (a lot of people seem to fall down in this story...)

Hayato spun around, eyes widening when he saw Byakuran standing behind a just-fallen-down Tsuna, and drew his own conclusions. "You! What did you do to Juudaime, you asshole!"

"Hayato-kun," Tsuna laughed nervously. "Actually, I kinda just tripped..."

"But Juudaime! It's because of this guy that-"

"Maa, maa, Haya-chan! Byakuran-san's just here to help, right?"

"That's right! You should listen to Yamamoto-kun," Byakuran smirked evilly. "Ha. Ya. Chan~"

"I'M GONNA BLOW YOU UP, YOU-"

"HIEEEEEE! Wait, Hayato-"

"My apologies, Juudaime, I didn't mean to cause you any trouble!"

"N-no, it's fine, please don't bow."

"But, that's-!"

"Maa, maa, everyone's having so much fun!"

"It's really fine, I-"

"Ne, Tsu-chan, you and your guardians are as lively as ever!" Byakuran tilted his head to the side in what might have been an adorable manner, except for the fact that this was a twenty two year old man we were talking about, not a five year old toddler. Suddenly, he perked up. "Oh? I feel a strange death glare being sent my way..."

Tsuna, Hayato and Takeshi all simultaneously sweat-dropped. "Um..." Tsuna nervously opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again when he felt the death glare being slowly transferred to him.

Byakuran's cheerful smirk grew wider as he finally noticed the source of the laser-glare-of-doom which was slowly increasing in intensity. "Ah, it's Arcobaleno-kun! Ne, how nostalgic, we haven't seen you in this form for quite some time, right, Tsu-chan?"

"Ah! Now that you mention it..."

Reborn's eyes widened marginally, so slightly that only one peering very close from two centimetres away would have been able to see. "What?"

_Shoot_, Tsuna thought as Reborn looked at them suspiciously. He remembered Reborn lecturing him about giving out information should they ever time-travel, and the horrible consequences that would befall him should he let something slip (each one of those many consequences punctuated by a very painful knock to the head). Well, he knew that they were in a different time, somewhat, so did this apply?_ Crap, I need an excuse. _

"Well, um, you see-HIIEEEE! DON'T POINT THE GUN AT ME!"

"JUUDAIME!"

"Answer properly, dame-Tsuna, or I'll shoot."

"Hai, hai, Tsu-chan," Byakuran waved his hand in a care-free manner, happily chewing on marshmallows from a bag he had mysteriously gotten from somewhere. "After all, _he's _coming here anytime now, so no point trying to keep anything secret."

It took a second for the words to register, but when it did all the colour drained from Tsuna's already pale face. "Oh no."

"Oh yes. Don't look so sad, Tsu-chan, aren't you glad you get to see your beloved tutor again?"

_Glad?! Glad doesn't even cover it!, _Tsuna thought as he sunk to the ground, all the energy in his body gone just from a single sentence. He didn't even have the strength to hear Hayato spazzing out beside him over "Juudaime's ailing health". _Once Reborn comes, I'm dead. I'm so dead. I'm so freakin-WHAT THE HELL IS THAT A GUN SHOT?!_

"HIEEEE!" Tsuna jumped up in shock for what must have been the thousandth time that day as everyone's heads turned to the source of the gunshot, all of them except Hayato (who was still spazzing out) ignoring Tsuna (who felt very appreciated at the moment).

Casually leaning against the kitchen counter, at what was a previously unoccupied spot near the window, was a tall man, dressed simply in a well-fitting black suit. A plain fedora was tilted over his face, shadowing his eyes. His obnoxiously curly sideburns were perfectly in place, not a single strand wavering as he aimed a gun straight at his student, who looked as if he was about to cry.

"Dame-Tsuna, who said you could act so uselessly."

"HIEEEEEEE! R-REBORN!"

* * *

**This chapter...sucks ._. I have nothing else to say, except that my brain is fried and I don't have the energy to rewrite it. This chapter is also late, for which I am sorry.**

**Anyway, I still haven't figured out how to differentiate between the two Reborns, so I'm gonna hold out until the last moment to see if I have any spark of inspiration. I'm open to any suggestions though :D**

**How's Hibari, by the way? I found it very difficult to write him, because he just didn't want to fit into the stupid character outline I had planned. Forget biting me to death, he's already the death of me *sobs* Again, if you guys have any suggestions on how to improve, please let me know :D**

**Anyway, R&R please! I really need to know how to improve this story! T^T**


	7. Hunting Dogs and Useless Prey

**I have decided, after much serious contemplation, that for now canon!Reborn shall be called (drumroll) Reborn. AU!Reborn shall be called...infant Reborn. Or something like that. It's lame, but I am at my wit's end. I was attempting to write this whole thing without putting in their names, and I got fed up with that impossible task and decided on this instead.**

**Any better ideas shall be appreciated.T.T**

**Warnings: Hibari Kyoya (yes, he needs a warning for his pure awesomeness). And 1827. And, um, some...very obvious implications. That's pretty much it, really.**

* * *

**Chapter 7**

**_Hunting Dogs and Useless Prey_  
**

"HIIEEE! R-REBORN!" Tsuna shrieked as he stared up at his tutor, in all his six-foot glory. "W-what the-?"

Reborn sighed. "Really? Is that the best you can do? That can't even be called a proper sentence. Have you forgotten all that I've taught you, dame-Tsuna? Or," a smirk of pure evil appeared on his face. "Perhaps I have to teach you again...?" There was no sound as he slowly placed a finger on the trigger of his gun, but to Tsuna it sounded like some nuclear explosion happening right before his eyes.

"W-wait! I'll stand up, I'll stand up!" Tsuna struggled to his feet, all colour drained from his face as he wobbled dangerously in shock. Hayato, seeing the distressed state his boss was in, rushed over to support him. Takeshi stood to the side, casting worried glances at the pair and laughing nervously. For all his obliviousness, _he _certainly wouldn't be the idiotic one that would cross the hitman's path, not with the dark evil aura he was radiating. Hell, _nobody _would be that stupid, not even a certain annoying cow (well, on second thought...) .

"Ne, Reborn, poor Tsu-chan looks like he might collapse any moment," Byakuran cried out cheerfully, marshmallow after fluffy marshmallow being popped into his mouth. "Actually," he appraised Tsuna again. "I think he _will _collapse any moment. And that would be no good, will it? After all, that kid would be pissed that his chance to _torture _his little Tsu-kun a bit was ruined, ne~?"

Tsuna suddenly perked up as his ears caught his name and the word 'torture' being said in the same sentence (which, with his luck, never really boded well). "H-huh?"

The gleeful smirk on Byakuran's face and Reborn's sadistic chuckle was more frightening than anything he had seen before. He could feel a sense of doom slowly filling the air and pervading the room as, despite the ridiculous situation, all the people standing there (infant Reborn included) felt shivers go down their spines.

"Heh. Well, yes, it would be troublesome if he got irritated here."

"Huh? Wh-what's happening?" Tsuna felt his sense of dread slowly increasing as Byakuran's grin grew even more maniacal.

"Hai! We wouldn't want a large scale massacre happening again, would we?" Byakuran practically sang, his voice gleeful.

"W-wait a minute-"

"Like the incident at Windsor?" Hayato, Takeshi and Tsuna all froze at the same time the minute the words left Reborn's lips. They looked like they were encased in ice, like they had just gone through the hell of Tsuna's Zero Point Breakthrough. _Ah,_ Tsuna thought. _They don't mean..._

"Hai, hai, that's the one. What was it? Six million pounds worth of damages to public property, all incurred in the matter of fifteen minutes." Byakuran whistled appreciatively, but the sound was hindered by a white fluffy treat and came out rather strangled. "Impressive."

What little colour there was left on Hayato's and Takeshi's faces drained away as the (rather depressing) memories came back to him. Tsuna just sank to the floor, a sigh of resignation leaving his lips. _Well, I'm glad that he's coming, but...knowing him..._

_...knowing him..._

Tsuna could feel the colour rising to his cheeks. _Knowing him...won't he just make the situation that much more embarrassing?!_

Reborn had to stifle another chuckle at the contorted expression on his student's face, caught between horror, happiness, relief and embarrassment.

"Bya-byakuran-san," Tsuna was completely red in the face now, and was struggling to keep his voice steady. "W-when is-?"

Byakuran swallowed his marshmallow and smacked his lips. "Twenty seconds."

Tsuna's jaw dropped. "W-WHA?! SO SHORT?"

"Ten now."

_H-HIEEEEE!_ Tsuna's face got even redder (if that was possible), the blush spreading all the way to his ears and down his neck. _H-he's gonna kill me! And then he's gonna-_

"Five!"

_Oh my God, this is bad._

Frantically, Tsuna leapt up and made a last ditch attempt to preserve his dignity (at least in front of the younger guardians-in the case of his own friends, it was a bit too late for that). "H-hayato!" he called over his shoulder as he made his way past the door.

"Hai, Jyuudaime?!" Hayato blinked in confusion.

"Tell him...tell him I'm at his place!" _His hopefully empty place, I think._

Hayato blinked, before his eyes widened in understanding and a light blush dusted his cheeks. "H-hai..."

"Two!" Byakuran said happily, loud enough for Tsuna to hear as he skidded across the front yard. At the side of the room, Takeshi was trying to hold in his laughter, his body shaking in silent guffaws (his amusement was directed both at Tsuna's unfortunate predicament and Hayato's obvious embarrassment despite the fact that they all should have been used to this by now).

"And...one!" Byakuran threw a marshmallow in the air as he said it, the treat dancing gracefully over his head as a snowy cloud of smoke exploded in the middle of the room.

* * *

All those who belonged to this world, meanwhile, were watching silently from their respective locations, all (even infant Reborn) too stunned by the quick sequence of events to make head or tail out of anything.

Which was a good thing, really, when one stopped to think about it.

* * *

Tsunayoshi couldn't believe the day he was having.

It had started out normally. Or, as normal as a day could get in the life of a budding Mafia Don. He had gone to school, forgotten to bring the folder containing all his homework, failed to answer almost all the questions posed to him in class, practically died in PE, and basically acted dame the whole way through.

A pretty normal day for him.

The trouble had begun when he walked over to Gokudera's house for a study session with him and Yamamoto. Gokudera had suggested it out of the blue, Tsunayoshi had eagerly agreed to the help of Gokudera and his stellar results, and it had taken both of them to coerce the reluctant and rather grumpy Rain Guardian to come along.

Of course, Tsunayoshi just _had _to forget all his textbooks at home. Gokudera had insisted on accompanying him to get them, and Yamamoto had huffily tagged along.

And thus, it was on that fateful walk that he had seen his, what was it that Gokudera had mentioned a few weeks ago? Doppelganger? Yes, doppelganger.

When he woke up after fainting on the pavement (which was actually quite normal for him?) he had proceeded to watch as his doppelganger blew up and started screaming, some strange guy with white hair and an apparent obsession over marshmallows appeared and caused a scene, and _another _strange(but oddly familiar) guy with a gun appeared and caused an even bigger scene.

And now this? Tsunayoshi coughed hard as the smoke entered his lungs. His eyes, squeezed shut, were starting to tear up. _This is just weird_, he thought grimly as he attempted to open his stinging eyes.

Of course, when he finally managed to open his eyes, it didn't get any less weird. In fact, it just got even stranger.

The white smoke had started to clear, revealing the person standing in the middle of it all. Tsunayoshi took in the slightly messy black hair; the narrowed, cool grey eyes tinged with cerulean; the black gakuran fluttering on his shoulders, complete with the Disciplinary Committee's blood-red and gold armband. He took in the familiar stance, proud and steady; the scary, vaguely wild look in his eyes; the feral smirk spread over his face as he scanned the room like a hunting dog observing its prey.

Tsunayoshi gasped and stumbled back slightly. There were slight differences, yes, like the fact that the gold words on the armband were stylised just a bit differently, and that this person was standing a good five centimetres taller. But nevertheless, it was definitely true.

Tsunayoshi was staring at Hibari Kyoya.

* * *

Kyoya scanned over the room slowly. Everyone had general looks of complete bewilderment on their faces, except for Hibari, who just looked horrified. His gaze lingered on Tsunayoshi, but he quickly dismissed him. Similar, but not the same. He huffed as he realised the person he was looking for was nowhere in sight, his smirk replaced by a dark scowl. He had gone out of his way to threaten the ex-infant and smack the marshmallow herbivore over the head with his tonfa, and in the end that idiotic omnivore was nowhere to be found?

Seeing the sullen (almost childishly so) look on Kyoya's face, Reborn reached up to tilt his fedora over his face, further shadowing the amused look in his eyes. "If you're looking for that dame-student of mine, he ran off."

"...Hn?" Kyoya turned his head slightly to face the hitman, a completely disinterested look on his face. Inside though, he was seething. How dare that omnivore run away like that? And after he had to clean off all the marshmallow powder covering his tonfas, too.

Reborn wanted to laugh, and settled for a grin instead. "If you want to know, he's scampered off to your house." _Still as dame as ever._

There was a slight pause before the creepily feral smirk returned to Kyoya's face. _Perfect._

Swiftly, he turned on his heel and started to walk off before an unlit dynamite flew over his shoulder. He stopped, and glanced over at Hayato with a vaguely bored expression. The bomber had a terrific scowl on his face, but Kyoya noticed the slight tinge of red on his ears.

"Damn you! Don't you dare...don't you dare h-hurt Jyuudaime again, you hear me?" Hayato stammered out, his ears getting redder. There was a sound of laughter being choked back coming from Takeshi's direction.

Kyoya briefly considered delivering due punishment for all the times the dynamite-throwing herbivore had damaged school property, but deemed it not worth the time. He had better things to do, like finding a certain dame-omnivore, for instance. And as for after that, well...

He let out a sharp sigh and turned back again, fingers twitching in impatience as he finally stalked out , midnight black gakuran fluttering behind him gracefully, as if challenging Hayato's spluttered protests and everyone else's stares boring into his back.

A hunting dog pretty much has only one goal, after all, and that was to catch its prey.

* * *

**Hahahaha...well, I did say this wasn't going to become M, so no, the next chapter will not have the ensuing scenes. Use your imagination to figure out what happens at Hibari's place. I'm not good at lemon, anyway, because I'd probably die of laughter and embarrassment after the first ten words, so any attempts would result in epic fails and butchered pairings.**

**So, pairings. Um, 1827 is confirmed, and 8059 is semi-confirmed? But AU and canon characters will have different pairings. Well, at least one, anyway. It's...already part of the plot. Kind of. I won't say anymore.**

**Well, this was slightly longer than usual, hope it makes up for the crappy chapter 6. **

**R&R please! Reviewers shall get a virtual muffin! Or not. But review anyway! :D**


	8. Maro the Machine Explained

**Warnings: OOC-ness to the extreme. Yes. That's it.**

**Happy reading! :D**

* * *

**Chapter 8**

**_Maro the Machine Explained_**

The whole room was silent as they watched Hibari Kyoya-_the _Hibari Kyoya- leave with a flourish, black gakuran flying in the wind, reminiscent of a scene from an action drama.

Then everything exploded.

Bianchi, a closet fujoshi, was blushing and fangirling in the corner, pink hearts and rainbows literally radiating from her person, as she gushed on and on about the apparent romantic scene that all of them had the (questionable) fortune to witness.

Lambo, poor innocent kid, was in hearing range and was looking up at her expectantly, as if waiting for an explanation. Which she readily gave, punctuated by loud girlish squeals of excitement and Lambo's looks of confusion (one could swear that there was a slight look of absolute dread in his eyes, as if he knew that his mind was about to be tainted forever by an over-enthusiastic fangirl).

Nagi, also well versed in the ever popular BL, was silently shaking with laughter in the corner, gleefully going through all the new ways she could tease one hated Hibari Kyoya (dammit, it was deserved revenge for her thousand dollar designer Loubotins).

Said Hibari Kyoya, meanwhile, was standing there with a look of growing horror on his face as his mind tried to process what he had just seen. It wasn't looking too good.

Hayato and Takeshi had gone back to arguing, the former having gotten pissed at the latter's apparent disinterest in the Decimo's wellbeing. Takeshi was laughing good-naturedly, as if the multiple (_lit_) sticks of dynamite in Hayato's hands weren't about to go off in his face and blow all of them to the high heavens any second.

Yamamoto, having lost most of his interest in Hayato, was busy sharpening his katana with one of Nana's kitchen knives, a bored and sullen look on his face.

Gokudera's head was swivelling back and forth between everyone, a panicked look on his face as he took in all the chaos. Mentally, the loyal Storm Guardian was trying to figure out the exact chances of getting everybody to just settle down and act like sane human beings and not some crazy mafiosi with apparent mental disabilities. The chances, unfortunately, were around zero, seeing as how everyone in the room _were _crazy mafiosi with apparent mental disabilities.

Tsunayoshi, well, was wailing and being dame ('nuff said).

Just as both Reborns were finally getting pissed and about to go trigger-happy on the room any second, there was a crackle of plastic and a giggle and suddenly, everybody found themselves covered in a sticky white powdery substance. It shut them up pretty quickly, as everyone tried to figure out exactly what was all over their clothes (and more importantly for Bianchi and Nagi, would the bloody thing wash off?!).

"Hai, hai," the culprit, Byakuran, raised a hand up, throwing the empty marshmallow bag up in the air. It flew in an elegant arc, fluttering down gracefully before finally resting on a very nervous, freaked-out-looking Tsunayoshi's head. "Now, all of you can keep quiet and spend the time licking off this very yummy marshmallow dust off your clothes while I expla-!" His violet eyes widened marginally as he dodged to the right, a bullet whizzing past him. "Ne, Reborn, that was mean."

Reborn gritted his teeth. "Don't give me that look, you bastard. You know how long it took to wash off the last time you pulled a trick like this?"

"…Ne, can't you just lick it off?"

… _Click._

"Die."

* * *

After all the commotion had died down and everyone had resumed their seats at the table-well, almost everyone. Takeshi was sitting in the corner being sullen, as usual- Byakuran _finally _got started on his explanation.

Not without opening a new bag of marshmallows first, though. Everyone watched him in disbelief as he stuffed marshmallow after marshmallow in his mouth and chewed on them blissfully. Somewhere in his mind, Tsunayoshi wondered how he hadn't died from diabetes yet. It was his third bag for marshmallows. The family-pack, what's more. Were his veins full of sugar or something?

"Ne, now we can finally get started," he said as he happily popped another sugary pillow into his mouth. "Ah, wait, we should get Sho-chan here too!" With one hand in the bag, he used the other to search his pockets before successfully pulling out what looked like a small metal disc.

"There we go!" With a cheery exclamation, he pressed the button on the disc. Immediately, a beam of light shot out from the device, expanding to become a beaming gold rectangle. Displayed in the rectangle was the image of Shoichi Irie's frazzled looking face.

"Ne, Sho-chan, you look like you're about to die." Shoichi's face was grey from exhaustion, dark eye bags forming under his eyes a la Panda style. His face was contorted in a mixture of sleepiness, hunger, and pain (probably from the chronic stomach aches he always got). Yes. He did look like he was about to die. However, he still had the energy to look slightly irritated by his colleague's comments.

"And whose fault is that, huh?!"

_He always gets irritable when sleep-deprived. _"Haha…well, on with the explaining then!" Byakuran smiled and waved a marshmallow around in between his fingers. "These guys are waiting." He glanced at a certain fuming hitman out of the corner of his eye. "Yeah, definitely waiting. I think we should start, Sho-chan."

Shoichi sighed in defeat. "Fine. Well, for starters, do you guys know where you are, Gokudera-san, Yamamoto-san?" He looked at the two people in question, who up until a few seconds ago had been in the middle of a one-sided argument involving hushed whispers, slight chuckles and plenty of dynamite being waved around.

He received a shrug and a good-natured laugh from Takeshi-an unexpected show of brilliance for the baseball idiot, in Hayato's opinion. The latter had, meanwhile, opened his mouth to rattle of his hypothesis; voice switching over to the monotonous, business-like one most commonly heard when he was lecturing on the mechanics of physics in swimming and college-level mathematical equations. "Well, judging by the-OW! OI, YOU MARSHMALLOW FREAK!" Byakuran, having gotten bored before he'd even started, had flung one of his precious marshmallows at the bomber.

Just as Hayato was about to blow up, Shoichi hurriedly continued. "Moving on! You guys as well as Hibari-san and Tsunayoshi were transported to a parallel universe. As you can see, the people here who look exactly like you are actually your selves in this parallel world."

Gokudera, Hibari, Nagi and Tsunayoshi's jaws fell simultaneously; Lambo was looking around quizzically; Yamamoto raised an eyebrow; Bianchi's eyes widened; the infant Reborn showed no change of expression.

"Ok, ok," Shoichi raised his hands up, his frazzled look growing even more frazzled. "Before you start going up in arms and protesting, hear us out, okay? Umm, Reborn-san?" Two heads turned towards him, and he internally sweat-dropped.

"Er, the…younger one." If looks could kill, Shoichi would've been a dead man, because boy, one does _not _underestimate Reborn's death glare. He gulped nervously but, armed with the knowledge that no one had yet invented a way to commit murder across dimensions and through a hologram, he pressed on.

"U-umm, you've heard of the Reali famiglia, yes?" At this, infant Reborn's glare faltered slightly. Tsunayoshi's ears perked up at the words. _Reali…_he'd heard the word before. Ah, yes…

"Reborn? Isn't that the family which-HIEEEEE!" _Thegunthegunthegunthegun._ "I-I'LL SHUT UP NOW!"

Infant Reborn smirked slightly before lowering his green weapon, sharp gaze turning back to Shoichi. "What do you know?"

Shoichi sighed again. "Not very much…but we know that in their state and with their experience, _this _Tsunayoshi and his guardians are extremely outmatched."

There was the screeching sound of a chair being pushed back as Yamamoto leapt up, radiating rage. "I have no idea what you just said about whatever parallel world and shit, but are you implying that we're weak, you bastard?" He growled out.

"Y-yamamoto-" Gokudera stood up as well, nervously looking at his friend as if he was a wild animal about to charge at any moment. "Calm down…"

Shoichi paled slightly. _This is Yamamoto Takeshi? What the hell happened to the gentle Rain? Gentle being an important keyword._ He again raised his hands, as if in an attempt to appease the furious Guardian. "N-not at all! Look, Byakuran already looked through the memories of his alternate self! He's come into contact with this particular famiglia many times in many different worlds, and in every world they have always been extremely powerful! Not to say that you guys are weak, but as it is, you'd definitely be crushed if you fight them head on. In one or two years, maybe you'd stand a chance. But now? It's just not feasible." When the furious glare refused to let down, Shoichi gulped, slowly wilting under the pure rage. "J-just try to look at this reasonably-"

Byakuran stifled a chuckle. "Ne, Sho-chan, that's no use. Let's just move on, 'kay? You're being boring." Ignoring the spluttered protests, he cheerily bit into another marshmallow. "Now, here's the brilliant plan that I thought up of, with the help of Sho-chan here! You see, I had the excellent idea of building a dimension-travelling device that is _actually_ relatively safe! So your alternate selves, all of them older, wiser, and of course taller and _much_ better looking, are coming over to help personally train you!"

He was met with blank stares.

"Ne, let me simplify it then. Old people." He placed one marshmallow on the table.

"Young people." Yet another marshmallow.

"Baddies." He took out another marshmallow and placed it in between the two.

"Fight!" With unexpected swiftness, he took the first two marshmallows and used them to bludgeon and squish the third one into a pulp, reducing it to a sticky white mess.

"And they all lived happily ever after. Understand?"

Blank stares. Reborn sighed and muttered something under his breath, rubbing his temples. Shoichi looked as if he was about to collapse there and then. Byakuran, his explanation a massive failure, simply clapped both his hands together. "Now, now. Everyone's obviously doomed from a lack of intelligence, so let us continue before Sho-chan's stomachache gets worse!"

Shoichi really wanted to sleep. Instead, he mustered up the strength to brave on. "Ok. Fine. Look, I know this is kinda suspicious, but let us explain our reasoning, ok? Before you start shooting something." Cue anxious glances at a certain baby hitman. "Well, firstly, the Reali famiglia is actually a pretty established famiglia in our world, so we know their tactics better than you do."

"How do you know that they have the same tactics?" Infant Reborn interjected sharply. "It's a parallel world, after all. How do you know it's the same?"

Byakuran tilted his head to the right and smiled. "Ne, it's my ability, you see?"

The infant's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Ability?"

"Yup, yup! My ability to see what my alternate selves see. And what I see is that they are almost exactly the same."

Before the baby could question any further, Shoichi cleared his throat. "More on that later. Next reason is because, as you have already seen, the Guardians in our world are older. They're also more experienced. They've gone through going to the future and battling, um, Byakuran," Shoichi awkwardly tried and failed to say it nicely while Byakuran waved happily, unaffected by the curious glances and Hayato's bitter look.

"And they've also fought the Shimon famiglia, in the process gaining much more experience than those in this world. Besides, as a tutor you would agree that since the best person who understands you is yourself, then it also goes that the best person to train you would be yourself, right, Reborn-san?" Infant Reborn, having no room to argue, simply didn't say anything.

"Sho-chan's still so boring~" Byakuran sighed as he opened his fourth bag of marshmallows. "Lemme continue. So Sho-chan and I built this really cool machine that can transport people to different worlds. It's really awesome, 'cos during the trip you're transparent!"

"It's because the inner psyche and the physical body are moved separately," Shoichi, ever the scientist, interrupted. "To prevent corruption of the-"

"_Anyway_, unfortunately Sho-chan wasn't awesome enough _('Hey!'). _And after I tried to ply him with my extra stash of marshmallows too! Well, only two people can be transported over at any one time, depending on luck and Maro's mood at the moment."

"Maro?" Shoichi asked incredulously. "You named it? I thought I would get to name it!"

Byakuran's smirk was extra-gleeful. "First come first ser-!" For the umpteenth time that day, Byakuran swerved to dodge a bullet. "Ne, Reborn-kun, even this is pushing it."

Reborn breathed out sharply through his nose and tilted his fedora down. "Hate to interrupt this _touching _display of stupidity, but can we get down to business? We still haven't heard their opinions." He turned to the infant Reborn, and stared him down. The stare was returned twofold, and it turned into a minor staring match between two very scary people.

Just as Tsunayoshi was starting to feel shivers go down his spine, the baby Arcobaleno spoke up. "What are your motives?"

Reborn's lips parted in slight surprise for a moment, before they widened into a smirk. "For that marshmallow-loving idiot? He's doing it for fun," Byakuran made a peace sign happily, while Shoichi just sighed again and muttered something about a 'warm, fluffy bed'. "As for me? Well," his eyes were shadowed by his fedora, smirk growing even wider. "It's just the perfect chance to teach my dame-student a lesson." (Tsunayoshi could feel the cold shiver's creeping down his back like waves, and felt immense pity for his alternate self)

There was a short silence before the infant nodded curtly. "Fine. We accept your offer. _However, _this in no way means that my student and his guardians are inferior from yours."

"That's great!" Byakuran clapped happily. "Now, we just gotta wait for Tsu-chan to come back from his, ah, _session_." Reborn snorted, Takeshi stifled another laugh, and Hayato's ears went red again.

"And _then_, that's when the fun begins."

* * *

**LONGEST. CHAPTER. EVER. It totals to 2,366 words. I am proud of myself. :')**

**This is in celebration of WPLI's one month anniversary! Which was last week, but I missed it because of school work and activities and dammit, it's the holidays but teachers obviously don't see it that way. **

**Anyway, this chapter finally explains a lot of unanswered things. It might be a bit boring, but necessary. I tried not to make it too draggy. **

**I think I wrote Byakuran and Shoichi really REALLY OOC. But I rarely write them, so I have no idea how to, but I tried. I tried ._.**

**I realise the naming system got very very confusing cos the characters themselves aren't really following it, so I'll try to incorporate it into the story by next chapter.**

**Thank you all for supporting this story so far, and I hope you continue to do so! **

**R&R! :D**


	9. Educated Disguises

**Happy reading! :D**

* * *

**Chapter 9**

**_Educated Disguises_  
**

"And _then,_ that's when the fun begins," Byakuran proclaimed in a sing-song voice.

"W-wait," Tsunayoshi stood up, sending his chair skidding back. "Wait, wait, wait, wait. I never agreed to this."

"Alright!" Byakuran smiled and looked over at Reborn. "So when's Tsu-chan gonna be back? We should get started on the arrangements."

"Wai-"

Reborn sighed dramatically. "Knowing Hibari, he's not gonna go easy on that dame-student of mine."

"Wha-"

"So two hours?"

"I'd give it three."

Infant Reborn snorted. "Is your student's love life _that _pathetic?"

"Well, if my information is correct, _your _student only managed to con-"

"WAIT A MINUTE!" Tsunayoshi's face was flushed in embarrassment. "Please do _not _go there!"

"Tsuna, shut up," Both Reborns said simultaneously, and immediately turned to glare at each other.

_Well, now I've got their attention, better grab it before they start trying to slaughter each other._ "Ok, ok, look. We," He gestured to him and his guardians, who had varying faces of confusion, disinterest, and utter horror. "Have _not _agreed to this. Could someone please explain this in more detail?"

"Saa, Tsunayoshi-kun, didn't we go through this already?" Byakuran cheerfully pulled out three marshmallows. "Now see here, old peo-"

"Um, excuse me?"

"Hai?"

"That marshmallow thing doesn't really help, sorry."

Byakuran pouted. "But…it's marshmallows."

Wince. "Sorry." Somewhere in the background, Irie Shoichi sighed and muttered something about idiot bosses.

"Anyway," Reborn waved his gun around dismissively, as if he wasn't waving around enough firepower to take out everyone in the room and destroy the house while he was at it. "Your opinion doesn't matter."

"W-wha? Hey!"

"You and your guardians will do this whether you like it or not, because quite frankly, you do not have a choice." He glanced at the six children. "_Capito_?"

Tsunayoshi opened his mouth to retort, thought the better of it and sat back down.

Gokudera swallowed nervously.

Yamamoto snorted derisively and looked away.

Lambo looked on blankly.

Hibari was still in a state of shock.

Nagi rolled her eyes. "I better be paid for this."

Reborn smirked. "Right. Now you two," he looked over at Hayato and Takeshi, both of whom quickly leapt up in alert. "You two can go find that idiotic boss of yours."

"Hai, Reborn-san!"

"Haha, that'll be interesting! I can't wait to see Hibari's home!"

"Baseball-idiot, just shut up! This is an important mission and-"

"Maa, maa…"

On the holographic screen, Shoichi sighed. "They fight like a married couple."

"Like we don't?" Ignoring Shoichi's surprised splutters, Byakuran waved cheerily at the departing duo. "Good luck! Remember to knock on the door, unless you want your mind scarred for life!"

* * *

Tsunayoshi had gone to bed hoping, praying, wishing, that it was all a goddamn bloody dream. Because really, he did _not_ need to have to deal with his clone waltzing around Namimori. It would make his already unbelievable life that much harder to explain.

Of course, with his luck, none of it was a dream, as he discovered the next day.

The day had actually started out promisingly. He had gone downstairs to find Lambo calmly eating at the dining table and happily chatting with Fuuta and Ipin. At the side, Bianchi was making espresso, all the while muttering about 'darling Reborn'. Said 'darling Reborn' was nowhere to be found, but all the better for Tsunayoshi.

It was a good start to the day.

It was when he got to school that everything went spiralling downwards into the oblivion known as hell.

"J-Juudaime!" As soon as he'd stepped into the classroom, his Storm Guardian rushed forward and practically tackled him. "Did those guys come back to your house again?"

Tsunayoshi froze. _No way._

…_If I pretend nothing happened, would they go away?_

He laughed nervously. "W-who are you talking about, Gokudera-kun?"

"Those people from the parallel world of course! I was up all night worrying about it, and-"

Yamamoto, who was slumped in his seat, legs resting on the desk, gave a snort. "Tch. Stop being noisy, idiot. No way could they train us; those guys are just a bunch of weaklings."

"That's not the point here," Gokudera was bordering frantic by now, his grip on Tsunayoshi's shoulers getting tighter and tighter. "Juudaime, I spent the whole night going through all the possible future scenarios, and there's a 78.33% chance of something getting messed up in both worlds! Accidents, space paradoxes, and the like. For Reborn-san to even consider this is-"

"Haha, Gokudera-kun, I still have no idea what you're talking about," Tsunayoshi tried, unconvincingly, to look confused. _Just pray, just pray, just pray, just pra-ouch, that grip of his is gonna leave a mark._

Before Gokudera could rattle on any further, the door slammed open and Nezu-sensei strolled in. The whole class hurried to their seats, and greeted the teacher as he lazily dropped his books on the desk with a loud thump. "Alright, class, take your seats." His voice was a bored drawl, conveying the message that he would rather be anywhere else but here.

"Now, before I start, I would like to introduce to you a new trainee teacher. He's still in college, and he's here to get experience and learn more about his future profession. You can come in, Satou-san." Nezu-sensei looked at the door expectantly.

Nothing happened.

He cleared his throat impatiently. "Satou-san."

When _still_ nothing happened, Nezu-sensei huffed and stormed over to the entrance of the class, throwing the door open. "Satou-san, what are you doing on the floor?"

Nervous laughter floated in from the corridor. "Um, sorry, I kinda tripped?"

"Well, hurry up and stand."

"O-of course!"

Rolling his eyes, Nezu-sensei walked back in, followed by 'Satou-san'.

"Please introduce yourself."

"Ah! Well," the man laughed nervously. "Um, I'm Satou Hensou, pleasure to meet you! Er, I'll be joining your class as a trainee teacher for the next few months, so I'm looking forward to-"

Tsunayoshi stopped paying attention to the next couple of words. Instead, he was watching his kind-of-but-not-quite peaceful school life crumble before his eyes. _Guess the praying didn't work._ He could feel Yamamoto's intense glare of annoyance even from behind, and images of a destroyed school building came to mind. _Hibari-san will _not _be happy._

Next to him, Gokudera's pencil clattered to the ground.

* * *

"Hotel?"

"Yes, we're in a hotel now, did you not see the sign?" Reborn sipped his coffee, smoke wafting from the mug in swirls.

"Um, not exactly." _Seeing as how I was bundled into the car like some kidnapped hostage, I didn't really have time to see any signs. _"The windows were tinted."

Porcelain clinked delicately. "Dame-Tsuna, we'll be staying here for the remainder of our time in this world. Byakuran's put it on our tab. Or, to be specific, yours."

Tsuna looked around the room. Expensive fluffy carpet, silk curtains, elaborate gold furnishings on all the furniture, twenty-four inch widescreen television, state-of-the-art lighting and sound system.

His future life of debt and dollar signs flashed before his eyes.

"We'll be starting training once Dino-of this world, that is-comes." Tsuna's ears perked up at hearing his older brother's name. "His family members have been doing some info-gathering missions back in Italy, so he should be able to give all of us a clearer picture of the enemy famiglia's movements."

"About that, you still haven't-"

"Keep quiet and let me finish. In the meantime, you'll be going undercover in Namimori Middle."

"Undercover?"

"As trainee teachers. Shoichi's already made arrangements. He also gave us this," Something smacked Tsuna in the forehead.

"Ow! Reborn!"

Smirk. "You should have caught it, dame-Tsuna."

Tsuna scowled and looked down at the object that had landed on his lap. It was a mask, similar in shape and size to those fancy Venetian masks that he had seen in the past, but it was plain and white, and had no embellishments. Fingering it, he looked up at Reborn, who was still calmly sipping his coffee.

"It's a device Spanner made. It works like illusions, and anybody else who looks at you will see the appearance of someone else. It solves the problem of you looking exactly like the Sawada Tsunayoshi of this world. However," Reborn frowned. "It was still in prototype stage when Byakuran stole it-"

"What?"

"So there's a slight drawback. Apparently, anyone who has activated their flames before is able to see through the disguise."

Tsuna picked up the mask. "Can't we ask Chrome-chan to help?"

"This Chrome-they call her Nagi-doesn't have the ability to keep up illusions for all of you at the same time."

"Nagi, huh…" He studied the mask for a few more moments, before tentatively placing it on his face.

"I don't feel any different."

"That's too bad. I was hoping you'd start throwing up on the floor," Reborn said with a smirk.

Tsuna scowled and quickly took of the device, before something noticeably bigger than the mask smacked him right in the forehead again. "Ow! Reborn, really?!"

"Like I said, you should have caught it." Reborn sighed and looked down at his mug. "Out of coffee."

Ignored, Tsuna picked up the _second _object to have hit him in the head, a plain manila envelope.

"Well, dame-Tsuna? Open it."

He hurried to pull the string and lift the flap. Inside were a bunch of papers which Tsuna carefully slipped out.

"Satou…Hensou? Twenty-one years old, trainee teacher at Namimori Middle School…" Tsuna muttered under his breath as he flipped through the papers. "Hensou…the kanji reads as disguise, right? Couldn't you have chosen a less flashy name?"

"We did. Satou is the most common surname in Japan."

"According to who?"

"According to me(1)." Reborn picked up a biscuit and bit into it. "Now shut up and read so you can go make me more coffee when you're done."

Tsuna hmphed and put down his papers on the coffee table. "You still haven't explained to me about the enemy. Who are we fighting exactly?"

Reborn's hand froze, a biscuit inches away from his mouth. Then he sighed. "Fine. I'll tell you.

"But if you do not make my coffee perfectly, I _will _put a hole through your head."

* * *

Most students his age would already have a list of possible occupations to take up after graduation. Sawada Tsunayoshi, however did the exact opposite. He had a long list of jobs which he would most definitely _not _go into in the future, including, but not limited to, veterinarian (animals hated him), banker (mathematics hated him) and chef (sharp utensils hated him).

Suffice to say, a career in education was slowly crawling up to the top of said list.

He had been forced out of bed at an ungodly five in the morning, had the stupid mask slammed into his face with such force that it was practically engraved into his skin, pushed into a car, and dumped at the front gates of Namimori Middle along with a protesting Hayato, a half-asleep Takeshi and a seething Kyoya.

Only to learn that reporting time for trainee teachers was five thirty. In the morning. The sun hadn't even risen yet.

And that wasn't even the main problem. After frantically somewhat calming down a furious Kyoya, he had managed to drag all of them to the General Office, only to be immediately split up and sent their various ways.

Before he knew it, he had been shoved into a room, had stacks of papers shoved into his arms, had multiple instructions shoved down his ear, and had been shoved out of the room again.

Thus, Tsuna spent the next two hours running to room after room to deliver stacks of documents. In those two hours, he had learnt first-hand exactly how big Namimori-chuu was. He had to go _everywhere_, from the General Office, to the Principals' Office, to the cafeteria, to the computer lab, to Staff Room A, to Staff Room B, to Staff Room C, and to Staff Room D (all four Staff Rooms, coincidentally, were located in four different corners of the school complex). By the end of it all, Tsuna was panting, sweating, aching, and cursing the architect who had designed the building.

The best part? School hadn't even officially _started_ yet.

Of course, the horrors just got worse when he was informed that he had been assigned to Nezu-sensei, of all people. He had stood there gaping at the confused receptionist for a whole minute, mind running through all the possible ways of strangling a certain marshmallow idiot to hell and back.

It was after a lot of drama involving failed begging, pleading and a very confused receptionist that he finally found himself waiting outside a certain class 2-A, shuffling his feet glumly.

Only to be hit in the head for the third time in two days.

"Ow!" He stumbled forward and brought a hand to his head. "What was that for-Reborn?!"

"Keep quiet," infant Reborn smacked him in the head with his gun, causing him to wince. "Or my dame-student will hear you."

"What are you doing?"

"Why should you know?"

Tsuna sighed and leaned against the wall, rubbing his bruised head. He knew that this Reborn didn't trust them, but it was still a bit unsettling.

Of course, being in a parallel world itself was all kinds of unsettling.

"You're strong." Tsuna's train of thought was interrupted, and he looked up to see Reborn staring at him.

"What?"

"You're strong. Stronger than my useless student, at least," Reborn acknowledged. "I could see that when you fought with Yamamoto."

Tsuna's eyes widened for a fraction of a second, and then a small smile graced his lips.

"Well, I am older, after all." _But to think you would use that to assess my strength…you're still a Spartan tutor, whether in this world or the next._

"Oi, you." Tsuna turned to see Nezu-sensei walking down the corridor towards him. The baby Arcobaleno had mysteriously disappeared. "Are you Satou Hensou?"

Tsuna automatically straightened his posture. "Y-yes. Are you Nezu-sensei?"

"Hmm." Nezu looked him up at down critically. "You don't look all that intelligent, but you'll do." He sniffed. "Although your name leaves much to be desired…youngsters nowadays. No qualms about giving their children strange, radical, names," Nezu muttered under his breath.

"Anyway, wait outside while I go in. When you hear me calling you, you can come in to introduce yourself."

"Okay." Nezu-sensei, already ignoring him, slammed the door open and strode in. Immediately, Tsuna's oblivious smile slid off his face, replaced with one of annoyance.

"That damned te-GAH!" Something slammed into his back out of the blue, pinning him face-first to the ground. "Reborn!"

"Shut up, dame-Tsuna, or they'll hear you."

"What is the point of this?" Tsuna hissed, face pressed down to the ground. "Get off m-" An object that felt suspiciously like the barrel of a gun was pressed to the back of his head, and he quickly closed his mouth. He could hear Nezu-sensei's obnoxiously loud voice.

"Satou-san?"

"Don't mention the Reali famiglia to my student or his guardians, understand?"

The sounds of footsteps were approaching. Panicking, he attempted to nod to the best of his ability, and ended up thumping his forehead on the tiled floor.

"Satou-san, what are you doing on the floor?"

Immediately, he lifted his head off the ground and smiled sheepishly, ready to come up with some other pathetic excuse. "Um, sorry-"

_Really, Reborn. You didn't need to go all that far to warn me._

Fake smile plastered on his face, he walked in to the classroom.

_Because I could already tell that you didn't seem to like it._

"-looking forward to working with you, so please take care of me!"

_The fact that the Reali Decimo was once a student of yours._

* * *

**(1) Or rather, according to Wikipedia. Search 'Japanese name'**

**I am not dead. Really, I'm not. But I am so incredibly sorry that I have not updated in God knows how long. I was in a rush to finish all the homework which I had conveniently forgotten about. And I'm still not done. Holidays provide only so much relief *sniffs***

**Anyway, more bad news. I'm going overseas for the whole of next week, so I do not know whether I will get to update. However, I should be able to squeeze in another chapter or two before I leave, so that makes up for it? Kind of? Not really? Ok.**

**You all are free to whip out the flamethrowers and go crazy on me.**

**Another thing. I usually keep the emails stating that I've got a review, and then delete the email once I've replied. However...**

**I accidentally cleared my inbox. **

**Thus, I now have no idea who I've replied to and who I have not. My memory is that bad. So I'm gonna be making wild guesses, and if you never get a reply or accidentally get a second reply, you are free to go all out with that flamethrower.**

**R&R! :D**


	10. Nonsensical Aliases

**Warning: Swearing, OOC-ness (kind of), awesome Pandora Hearts reference (which I do not own, by the way!)**

**Happy reading! :D**

* * *

**Chapter 10**

_**Nonsensical Aliases**_

"Reali…famiglia?" Tsuna stumbled over the unfamiliar Italian pronunciation, inwardly grimacing at the thought of having to learn the language in the near future. Sure, he knew the basics (_ciao,_ _addio, grazie_) but it had taken him about two hours to pronounce those three basic phrases at a level that was up to Reborn's satisfaction. Italian lessons with that Spartan tutor of his were going to be hell.

"Your diction is pathetic." Reborn watched his student wince over the rim of his coffee mug and sighed. "At least your coffee is up to scratch."

"After you tried to shoot me and made me remake it three times!"

"And after all that, it's only _passable_. You still have a lot to learn, dame-Tsuna."

Tsuna scowled. "Anyway, back to the topic. You were talking about the Reali famiglia? So far I only know their name."

"Well, yes." Reborn sighed, right hand placed on his gun as if contemplating shooting something any minute. "The Reali famiglia, founded around the same time as the Vongola. In our world they are allies with us, but here history has obviously taken a different path.

"Their specialty lies in strategy and intelligence gathering. All ten generations have used that trait to their advantage, and during allied operations Vongola has heavily relied on them to assist in planning out missions and gather information on enemies. Their biggest weakness is that most of the time, they are not coordinated, sometimes to the point where different teams on the same mission even attack each other in confusion."

Tsuna blinked as his brain was steamrolled by the long string of information coming out of Reborn's mouth. "Wait, wait, wait, this is way too fast."

"As a boss, you should be able to absorb all information quickly and efficiently."

"I know, I know, but still this is-and how do you know so much about them anyway?"

Reborn's eyes narrowed. "I'm the world's greatest hitman, dame-Tsuna. What did you expect of me?"

Tsuna sighed. An infuriating but nonetheless typical answer from Reborn.

"And in addition," A grip tightened around the handle of a gun. "The Reali Decimo of our world was a former student of mine."

Tsuna's eyes widened at the words. _What? Ok, wait, just…what? This is…wow. Just, wow._

"Close your mouth. You look like an idiot."

Tsuna closed his mouth abruptly and cleared his throat. "W-well…" He honestly didn't know what to say. Of course he knew that Reborn had lived many many years, and had gone through lots of things before Tsuna was even _born_. And obviously if both Dino and he were tutored by him, it wouldn't be a far stretch to say that he had had other students as well in the past, right? But somehow, the news that they would be fighting Reborn's ex-student-or his parallel self, anyway- surprised Tsuna more than it should have. And Tsuna knew why.

Because, at the end of it all, Tsuna really didn't know all that much about Reborn, his Spartan tutor from hell.

And this bit of news simply served to drive that point home.

Reborn couldn't help but smirk at the shell-shocked look on Tsuna's face. "You _still _look like an idiot."

"Well, this is kind of…surprising? I mean, why haven't you mentioned him before?"

Reborn's smirk was replaced with a scowl. "Why would you think I ever needed to mention this to you?" Tsuna winced and inwardly berated himself. _Smart, Tsuna. Like this is something you just drop into a conversation over coffee. _

"Um, well, I mean…"

Onyx eyes averted his gaze to stare at a nearby vase of flowers. "Innocenzo Reali. The last time I saw him was when he was fifteen. I had to leave to settle some business for Nono. An hour later he was caught in the middle of an ambush by some enemy Mafiosi. Outnumbered severely, probably three hundred men against him alone."

Tsuna stared, mildly surprised at how talkative Reborn was being. "Umm…I see. But why would you tell me all of-oh! Oh."

The air had long grown cold, and the sudden silence made it freezing. Tsuna stared down at his lap. Onyx eyes were still fixed firmly on the vase.

"Since he was an orphan with no next of kin, Nono wrote the obituary. I was too pissed off; the first time I had ever failed a mission, and it was all due to a fifteen year old brat who couldn't even fight decently."

Reborn was the cruel Spartan tutor from hell, who had no qualms about torturing him mercilessly in order to get what he desired. He was selfish, calculating, infuriating, sadistic and _way _too much of a perfectionist when it came to coffee, or anything else for the matter. Even so…

_I'm an idiot_, Tsuna thought glumly. _After all these years, I'm still an idiot._

Tsuna opened his mouth, to apologise, to ask more questions, to excuse himself. Reborn's eyes were still fixed very firmly on the vase. Fuchsia and gold, it was. With an oriental design. Probably cost close to four hundred thousand yen.

Shion and red spider lilies. Purple and crimson. (1)

He closed his mouth.

* * *

Tsuna, or rather Satou Hensou, stood in front of the whole class, his smile _very_ forced and _very _faked, as the whispers started to break out.

"Satou Hensou?"

"How is that written?"

"Such a strange name."

"He doesn't look like much."

Nezu-sensei forcefully slamming a thick file on the wooden desk caused everyone to shut up. "Satou-san will be observing our lessons from here on out, and he will also be assisting me in various matters. I trust that all of you will treat him nicely, regardless of his," he sneered. "Aptitude. Do I make myself clear?"

No one protested, which was as close to a 'yes' as you could get from a class of fifteen year olds.

"Right. Now we will be having a pop quiz." A collective groan rolled through the classroom. Yamamoto scowled and redirected his murderous glare to the teacher. Tsunayoshi looked like he was about to slam his face on the desk.

Tsuna wondered if he was imagining the sadistic grin on Nezu-sensei's face.

"Satou-san, please distribute the test papers."

"O-of course." A thick stack of documents was dropped into his outstretched hands, and Tsuna paled at the weight. This was thirty-five copies?

"All of you have thirty minutes. Satou-san, if you do not hurry up, I will start the timer before you even give out the first copy." Cue thirty-five glares of varying degrees of murderous intent as he rushed to start giving out the tests.

It was going to be a long day.

* * *

"Time's up! Pen's down. Satou-san, collect the papers." Nezu-sensei waved his hands dismissively, eyes still glued on his laptop. He had spent the past thirty-minutes at his desk, leaving Tsuna to invigilate. If the test had been any longer, Tsuna would have lost it halfway through. As it was, he was very tempted to ask Nezu-sensei in front of the whole class if he could please take his porn and watch it at home, _after _school hours.

It was a very, _very _tempting idea, but he restrained himself.

He walked through the columns of desks, picking up the test papers as he went. Tsunayoshi, too preoccupied by yet another predicted failure, had his head buried in his hands and didn't even glance at him. Yamamoto was glaring at the paper as Tsuna went to pick it up, as if he was trying to burn a hole through it with sheer willpower. As he passed by Gokudera's desk, he caught the phrases 'ribulose biphospate', 'thylakoid membranes', and 'photolysis' muttered in the same sentence, and realised that he _really _didn't want to know. (2)

Once Tsuna was done collecting all thirty-five copies, he neatly organised them and placed them on Nezu-sensei's desk, careful to keep the computer screen _out _of his line of vision (and really, did he have no shame?). "Here, Nezu-sensei."

"Huh? Oh. Alright." With a deep sigh (as if he was doing anything worth sighing about) he heaved himself up. "Ok, class, last thing before I leave. Since this test was _relatively _easy," cue thirty-five incredulous looks. "I did not think that mentioning this prior to you taking it was of much importance, but the grades for this test will be counted towards your final grade. Ten percent, actually."

You could hear a pin drop.

Then Yamamoto leapt up, slamming his hand on the desk, face a mask of pure fury. The whole room erupted in loud protests. Tsunayoshi was slowly slinking down in his seat. Gokudera was still muttering under his breath, and Tsuna's basic lip-reading skills allowed him to make out the phrases 'Calvin cycle' and 'Rubisco'.

"Ok. That's it. Bye." And with that, Nezu-sensei high-tailed it out of there, Tsuna quickly scrambling to follow him.

"Ah, Nezu-sensei," Tsuna attempted to start a conversation once they were out in the hallway and heading for the next class.

"Hm?" Nezu-sensei gave him a condescending look.

"Well, I'm just wondering whether that was alright. I looked through the paper, and that was testing on photosynthesis, right? They don't learn that for another two years." _In high school. If they even choose to take Biology, and God knows why anyone would._

If it was possible, Nezu-sensei's look grew even more condescending. "Now, now. As you're still young, you might not understand this, but it's better to weed out the useless when their still young. Nip the problem in the bud, you know? Like that Sawada Tsunayoshi, for instance. He shouldn't even be allowed to step in to the building, he's _that_ stupid."

Tsuna could feel a vein throbbing in his temple, and resisted the urge to punch the science teacher in the face.

* * *

"Juudaime!" Tsuna spun around to find Hayato running towards him, a happy smile on his face. His lips quirked up into a smile at the enthusiastic greeting from his usually moody right-hand man.

"Haya-! Ah, no. What was your name again?" Tsuna laughed sheepishly, rubbing his hand against the back of his head.

Hayato's eyes glimmered with pride. "It is an excellent name befitting an important undercover mission such as this, Juudaime. My alias at this moment is Suzuki Chuusei, Suzuki being the second most common surname in Japan. The kanji for Chuusei is written as-"

"Ah! I know this. Loyalty, right?" _What's with the weird names Reborn is choosing? Isn't this supposed to be an undercover mission? Why not, I don't know, Yamada Tarou or something stupid like that?_

"As expected of the boss! This name encompasses my loyalty to Juudaime as his right-hand man, and-" _I think he's trying to make a point with these names…_

"Ah! Tsuna! Haya-chan!"

Hayato's puppy-dog look was immediately replaced by a scowl. "Quiet, baseball idiot! This is supposed to be an undercover mission! You're blowing our covers!" Tsuna found Hayato's double standards quite comical, but kept quiet.

"Haha, I forgot about that!" Takeshi grinned. "So what are your names, then?"

"Satou Hensou."

"Tch. Suzuki Chuusei."

"Mine's Takahashi Yorokobi!" Tsuna's eyes twitched. _That's it; he's definitely having some fun coming up with these nonsensical names. _"Haha, all of us have such unusual names!"(3)

"Could you shut up, baseball idiot! Now you're really gonna blow our covers!"

"Maa, maa…"

"Hey guys," Tsuna spoke in an attempt to stop the ensuing argument. "How about we go up to the roof to eat? I don't know about you, but I'm actually quite hungry!"

"Of course! My apologies, I did not realise that Juudaime was famished."

"Haha, sure! It's lunch time, after all!"

Tsuna sighed, but he had a small, contented smile on his face.

* * *

Tsunayoshi wanted to melt into a puddle.

Not only did he confirm that no, the whole hi-I'm-your-clone-from-a-parallel-world-nice-to-meet-you thing had unfortunately not been a dream, that depressing revelation was followed by a very depressing science test, which he could swear was something near college-level (if Gokudera muttering many different scientific-sounding equations was anything to go by).

Needless to say, it was not turning out to be a good day.

The trio were currently on the roof, where they always had lunch. Yamamoto was glowering, whether because of the previous days' incidents or the test Tsunayoshi didn't know. Gokudera was trying to engage him in conversation, unsuccessfully, of course. After a few moments he gave up and offered Yamamoto half of his bento ("You forgot to bring money again, right?") which was grudgingly accepted with a grunt, and a small 'thanks'.

Gokudera's eyes widened and Tsunayoshi even interrupted his moping to swivel his head in their direction. Yamamoto, seeming to regret what he just muttered, merely scowled and avoided their surprised gazes.

Yamamoto Takeshi never said thank you. Never. _Never ever_. The closest he ever got was…no, wait, scratch that. He'd never even gotten close to those two words. The very fact that he had finally said it was a miracle in itself.

Gokudera smiled happily, and Tsunayoshi realised that he hadn't seen his Storm Guardian's smile since yesterday.

"Ah, Juudaime!" Gokudera turned towards him, his eyes practically sparkling. "Do you want the other half? My mother made it, but I'm not really hungry, so if you want…"

Tsunayoshi blinked, before shaking his head. "Nah, its fine. My mom made me lunch too, but thanks for the offer." He proffered his tuna sandwich as proof, and Gokudera, satisfied, turned back to Yamamoto again in the hopes of coaxing another miracle out of him.

Tsunayoshi, meanwhile, returned back to his moping. _Ah, today sucks. That stupid Nezu and his test. It's like he picked today to give it to us on purpose, just to spite me. If only Kyoko-chan were here. _At this he pouted. _But she's at club activities! I thought we'd manage to spend more time together…after all, I've already confessed and everything, and we're already going out, kind of._

_But wait! Wait, wait, wait! That's not the main problem! The main problem is-_

"Hayato-kun, please don't take out your dynamite, and Takeshi-kun, don't provoke him. Yes, I know he blew our covers, but I'm also-ah! I'm sorry; I didn't know there were other people-oh. Erm, hi."

Speak of the devil.

They stared at each other awkwardly for a few moments. Neither side knew what to say, although this was to be expected. What do yu say to yourself from a parallel world anyway.

Then Yamamoto snorted and looked straight at Tsuna. "Had a good time yesterday?"

Hell came in the form of one furious Gokudera Hayato.

* * *

The girl peered out the window, her palms pressed flush on the glass. "So this is Japan, huh? I was thinking that it would be more impressive."

There was a snort and a rustle of paper. "Right. And what were you expecting? This is Japan we're talking about, not some ancient and undiscovered Atlantic city thousands of feet under the sea."

She spun around in her seat to face her partner, green eyes blazing in irritation. "Loreto Tradimento," she hissed through gritted teeth. "You are officially the most infuriating, annoying, self-centred prick I have ever had the misfortune of meeting."

"Thank you. I appreciate the compliment, Clara."

"Ok, that's it!" She reached into her pocket for her box weapon, green lightning flames crackling to life around her ring. "I'm gonna fucking kill you now, you-!" With swiftness and agility she had forgotten he possessed, Loreto reached forward to snatch her box weapon and returned to his seat, twirling the cube between his thumb and index fingers.

"Great, now you made me lose my page. Thanks for that, too."

Twitch. "OK, YOU KNOW WHAT, I WAS TRYING TO STOP MYSELF, BUT HELL TO PATIENCE! I AM PERSONALLY GOING TO DISEMBOWEL YOU EVEN IF I HAVE TO BLOW UP THIS WHOLE FUCKING PLANE TRYING!"

More rustling of paper. "You do that, then. Just remember that I was personally assigned by the boss to observe you here in Namimori, seeing as how you screwed up that last mission in Spain. If you screw up this one," emotionless dark orbs flickered to meet her flaming green ones. "Well, can you afford to do that, Ms. Clara Monouso?"

Their gazes met for a few moments, neither side wavering, before Clara gritted her teeth and sat down.

"I'm only doing this because I don't want to disappoint Boss."

"Of course."

"Not because you frighten me, you bloody bastard."

"That's fine." Loreto threw her box weapon into the air where it landed neatly in her lap, and leaned down to pick up his fallen magazine. "Though," he flicked through the pages of the magazine. "Let me give you a word of advice.

"A loyalty that holds fast will become a blade, and will pierce someday those you hold dear. So open your eyes wide."

The box slipped from her fingers. "What are you-"

"As," Loreto interjected quickly, "Said by Xerxes Break, from the manga Pandora Hearts." He held the magazine up so that it covered half his face, and Clara could clearly see the words 'GFantasy' emblazoned on the cover. "Wanna read? I can lend you the previous issue-"

"Loreto?"

"Hn?"

"Shut up before I seriously change my mind about disembowelling you."

* * *

**(1) First person who gets the meaning behind this paragraph gets a shout-out and a virtual cookie.**

**(2) I learn this stuff in school, and really, you do NOT want to know what goes on in a plant, because it will give you a major headache of tremendous proportions. I barely scraped through for my EOYs *sobs***

**(3) Names:**

**Tsuna: Satou Hensou. Satou is the most common surname in Japan. Hensou is written as 'disguise' or 'transformation'.**

**Hayato: Suzuki Chuusei. Suzuki is the second most common surname in Japan. Chuusei is written as 'loyalty' or 'allegiance'. [Hayato's pseudonym was originally gonna be Suzuki Chuugi (a variant on Chuusei), until I Google searched it and it gave me a very hilarious result…I shall say no more, but damn, Gokudera, you have the worst luck XD And lesson learnt: always do your research.]**

**Takeshi: Takahashi Yorokobi. Takahashi is the third most common surname in Japan. Yorokobi is written as 'joy'.**

**Yamada Tarou: Japanese equivalent of John Smith. **

**The reason why there are comments on the strange names is because these aren't actually typical Japanese names. For example, people don't usually name their child Loyalty or Disguise right? Same concept here. And yes, Reborn is trying to make a point with these names XD I think they're quite obvious.**

**Hope this isn't too confusing o.O**

**Anyway, we've reached the tenth chapter. I'm actually kind of proud of this, so the first reviewer for this chapter gets to request an omake for this story, as long as:**

**-It doesn't mess up any established pairings **

**-It's not too complicated, because my brain can't really take all the complicated-ness…**

**If the first reviewer doesn't make a request because didn't read the author's note, then the second reviewer gets to make a request. Of course, if the first reviewer comes back and realises this, he/she is free to PM me to request :D**

**Of course, it may be that no one ends up reviewing, but ah well. **

**Last but not least, I'd like to thank everyone for their support! Everyone's reviews/favourites/follows have made me very very happy, and though this might not be the most popular or the most well-written fanfic out there, it really is a joy to write and I hope everyone enjoys reading it as well! :) I hope you'll keep reading until the end.**

**R&R! :D**


	11. Game Start

**Warning: Swearing for about one paragraph o.O**

**Happy reading! :D**

* * *

**Chapter 11**

**_Game Start_  
**

"Well…this is awkward, isn't it?" Takeshi's laugh is strained, and it trails off when both Hayato and Yamamoto give him evil glares.

Tsuna flexes his fingers nervously. "Umm, well, I guess so, huh?" His face is still tinged pink, and he can feel his head throbbing.

_I wasn't…limping _that _much_…_was I? Oh God, I feel so embarrassed now…_

"Haha, right!" Takeshi, having regained some confidence from Tsuna's feeble attempt at conversation, leapt to his feet and flashed one of his oblivious smiles. "So, how 'bout we introduce ourselves first? Since we'll be spending lots of time together after all!"

"Baseball idiot?"

"Hmm? You wanna go first, Haya-chan?"

"Shut up."

"Maa, then I'll start then! Name's Yamamoto Takeshi, but you all already know that, right?" he chuckled good-naturedly. "I'm a student at Nami High, currently a trainee teacher here, and I love baseball! I hope we'll be able to train well together from now on!"

Tsuna could clearly see a vein about to pop in Hayato's forehead. "Oi, baseball idiot! That was too long winded! We don't need to hear a long grandmother story about your boring life!"

"Oh, you wanna go next, Haya-chan?"

"I told you to stop calling me that," Hayato hissed, a faint blush forming on his cheeks. "And no, I don't want to go next, goddammit."

"Right! I'll do it for you then!" Takeshi laughed and slung his arm around the shorter teen's shoulder, who started squirming and protesting. "This guy here's Gokudera Hayato!"

"They already know that, you moron! What are you trying to accomplish by wasting our time?"

"If you don't introduce yourself, they won't know who you are, right?"

"Like I said, you buffoon-"

"Um, Hayato-kun," Tsuna interrupted before the fighting could escalate even further. "How about I just continue? My name's Sawada Tsunayoshi, and, er-" _Please forget whatever you saw yesterday? In fact, you can take all your memories of yesterday and put it into one hell of an incinerator before running the ashes through a paper shredder._

_...Would that be awkward if I said it?_

_You know what? Moving on._

"Er, nice to meet you?"

Takeshi grinned. "Nice! Okay, now it's…Haya-chan…again?" He blinked in confusion when two pairs of eyes instinctively turned to look at him. "Ano…how are we going to work this out? There's two of everyone…"

"Um…" Gokudera raised a hand meekly. "I have an idea?"

Hayato's eyes narrowed when he heard his alternate self speak. "Sounds weak," he muttered under his breath, so softly that only Takeshi, who still had an arm slung around his shoulder, could hear.

Takeshi tilted his head to look at him curiously, and then smiled encouragingly. "Shoot!"

"Well, we could, like, call you guys by your first names and you could call us by our last names…you know, so as to be clear on who's who."

Hearing this, Tsunayoshi felt vaguely uncomfortable. The only people who called him Sawada were bullies, and he really didn't need to be reminded of those times. Just as he was about to speak up, Gokudera beat him to it. "But, um, I'd rather call Juudaime something like…Tsunayoshi? It feels strange calling him Sawada." He glanced over at Yamamoto in confirmation, who just rolled his eyes and scoffed. It was as good an agreement as one could get from the boy, so he turned back to face the older boys in front of them. "Is that fine, then?"

Hayato scowled but nodded curtly in affirmative. Takeshi beamed and nodded enthusiastically.

"It's fine," Tsuna was still blushing slightly and cursing the fate of his dignity, but he managed a small smile and a nod. "Thanks very much, Gokudera-kun."

* * *

"Who the hell are you?"

Kyoya found it vaguely amusing, really, how this was the first time he had been on the receiving end of his second-in-command's furious glare. He could see now why ordinary herbivores were left white as a sheet and trembling at the mere glimpse of his face.

But then again, he wasn't an ordinary herbivore. Instead of trembling and paling, he simply smirked and leaned back in the brown leather swivel chair. "Why should I tell you?"

Kusakabe narrowed his eyes at the man in front of him. Average build, average height, with the face of any ordinary Japanese man. But the smirk, the look in his eyes, wasn't anything at all close to average.

He gritted his teeth. "Whoever you are, be it a student or a teacher, you have no right to enter the Discipline Committee's Office at any time of the day. And you most definitely do _not _have the right to sit at the Discipline Committee leader's desk, no matter what circumstance." He got into fighting stance, fists raised. "I'm afraid I'll have to punish you for such blatant disrespect."

If possible, Kyoya's smirk only grew wider. "Wao…you're bolder now." His tonfas were withdrawn, and there wasn't even any time for Kusakabe to blink before he lunged and mercilessly landed a hit across the face.

"Fight me, then."

* * *

"Eh? Trainee teacher?"

"Yeah." Mayu sighed and tugged at her long ponytail. "I'm in charge of one of them, but he never showed up for Japanese Lit. this morning. If he played truant, I'll just have more paperwork to fill."

"I see. What was his name? I'll look it up."

The woman scowled and fiddled with a strand. "I forgot. Subaru, or Suzuki, or Toshiba. Something like that."

"...Shizuka, you mean?"

"Ah, that's it. Shizuka Hokori. (1) You got it?"

"Yeah, but it says he signed in this morning. Are you sure you didn't see him?"

Mayu's scowl grew deeper and she was about to reply before a loud explosion could be heard all the way across campus. Shocked, she spun around. "Wha? The hell was that?"

The receptionist laughed nervously. "You still aren't used to it? It's most likely the Discipline Committee again."

"…The school system is pretty screwed up here, isn't it?"

"You only just realized?"

"Yep. Starting to regret it. I'll be going now."

"You should. And good luck with the trainee teacher!"

* * *

"Eek!" Tsunayoshi jumped up. "What was that?"

Gokudera frowned. "Probably not an enemy family, Juudaime. More likely, it's the Discipline Committee at it again."

"Again?!"

Tsuna cleared his throat. "Um, is the Discipline Committee very…er…_enthusiastic_ about their duties here as well?"

Gokudera sighed, Yamamoto shot him a condescending look, and Tsunayoshi just gave a half-hearted laugh.

"Well…you could say that?"

Tsuna exhaled and buried his face in his palms.

* * *

Hibari cracked one eye open and frowned. Couldn't he get _one_ minute of peaceful sleep without being bothered by herbivores? Really.

He sighed and pushed himself up, blowing long strands of black away from his face. His fluffy yellow pet flew down to rest on his shoulder and cocked its head quizzically, earning a small smile from its master.

Another explosion shook the ground and almost caused Hibari to stumble, but he regained his footing just in time. A scowl was deeply etched into his face now, and he felt a growing irritation burning in his chest. He didn't know what was happening, but from the sounds of it, there was no way his school was not being damaged.

"I'll bite them all to death," he muttered, before turning on his heel and making his way down from the roof.

* * *

On a tree located at the edge of the border separating the school from the outside world, a bored, monotonous voice was piercing the peaceful silence.

"You ready? I'm starting the timer now."

"Wait, goddammit! You know how hard it is to control these fucking idiots? I don't understand why they have to come."

"They're subordinates, Clara. Most people would jump at the chance to order some lackeys around."

"Annoying. I want them out the first chance I get."

Loreto sighed and adjusted his binoculars. "And you think it's so fun to be around you?"

"You can get out too then."

"I'm pressing the button."

"I said _wait,_ you bastard! If this explosive is accidentally dropped onto your head then you'll get it!"

"The fact that I'm even stepping into this country where an explosive from our _science lab_ of all places is present shows that I have no fear."

"Well, I'm holding the bloody thing!"

"Yep. You wanted white flowers on your grave, yes?" Static invaded the earpiece as Clara swore violently on her end.

"Stop, fucking joking around! This is serious, you-"

"Starting the timer now. One hour max, or you'll be the one getting it when we return to Sicily."

The countdown began with a small beep, neon green numbers starting to move. Loreto looked down at the stopwatch for a few moments before slipping it back into his pocket. He leaned back, looking up at the clear blue sky. Birds were swooping around the trees and flying upwards into the vast sky, as if sensing the impending chaos.

"Game start," he muttered and yawned softly, as the first bomb landed on the ground.

* * *

Blood slowly dripped down from metal, the room was a total wreck and Kusakabe Tetsuya was lying on the ground in a puddle of said blood, but Kyoya wasn't paying attention.

Instead, he was looking up at the ceiling.

Another explosion shook the whole building again from its foundations. Dust was beginning to fall from the roof, scattering and blending into the black of his suit jacket.

"Explosions?" Kyoya whispered to himself, as he stared up at the trembling grey tiles. "Who…?"

A third explosion resounded across the school campus. Already, he could hear frantic running and screams as students and teachers alike started to realize that something was amiss.

"Unforgivable." He gritted his teeth as a fourth explosion sent tremors across the school. The windows were starting to crack, a bookshelf had long collapsed and dust was still falling from above. "Defacing school property like this…I'll-"

The glass windows spanning the walls of the reception room suddenly shattered, and shards of clear, sparkling glass went flying just as cerulean-grey orbs widened in surprise.

* * *

**(1) Kyoya: Shizuka Hokori. Shizuka means quiet and is actually a real Japanese surname (which I only found out after research). Hokori means pride.**

**I'm back! *throws sparkly pink confetti everywhere*Ok, not really. But yeah. ****Chapter is shorter than I intended, but I got stuck and had to edit and re-edit this over and over and it STILL doesn't really flow right but to heck with it. You do not want to see how it was when I first wrote it ._. I feel shivers just remembering the state of this chapter half an hour ago.**

**I've also written out character profiles for the OCs…though there are only, like, four. But do any of you want me to post it up? It's kind of boring (age, weight, blood type, etc.) so I might not, but who knows? ****(On a side note, the Mayu in that paragraph up there is based on the Mayu from Furuba…Hatori was gonna make an appearance, but was edited out at the last minute. Sorry Hatori TT^TT)**

**As for the promised omake….it shall be done! There will be two, in fact, and the first one will probably be included in the next chapter.**

**Anyway, Merry Christmas Eve! At least, it's Christmas Eve where I am, if it's not for you, then Merry Day Before Christmas Eve! This chapter is a kind-of sort-of Christmas present. A suckish one. **

…**happy holidays?**


	12. Electric (Road) Rage

**Warnings: Swearing (especially in later parts), unnecessary breaking of the fourth wall**

**Happy Reading! :D**

* * *

**Chapter 12**

**_Electric (Road) Rage_**

There are bad drivers. There are really, _really _bad drivers.

And then there's Reborn.

Every driver who encountered a certain silver Audi that fateful afternoon was left swearing as the hitman proceeded to ignore every single traffic light, pedestrian crossing and conceivable traffic rule in existence.

"Shit," he muttered under his breath as he sped straight past the correct turning. He instinctively spun his steering wheel, making a ridiculous U-turn, before making another sharp turn left again. This was all done to the melodious accompaniment of cars honking and commuters shouting insults furiously.

Reborn felt tempted to flip them the finger, but one requires a certain amount of concentration when driving at one hundred and seventy five kilometres per hour on a crowded street. In the middle of the day, no less.

He almost killed the gear shift when he swerved to avoid a harmless old lady trying to cross the street, the awful screech of the tires sounding horrendous even to him. _That makes, what? Nine people I almost killed today, _he mused as the car lurched to avoid colliding into the bumper of a delivery truck. _Maybe I _should _have taken up Luce's offer on those driver's ed clas-fuck._

The man instinctively ducked under the dashboard as the sound screeching tires and scraping metal punctuated the air. His ears were ringing from having knocked his head hard, and he could feel shards of glass and dust falling on his head.

Keeping still, he waited until he was sure there was no danger, before a hand reached out and fumbled for the door handle, skin meeting leather. Alas, the door wouldn't budge.

Cursing in various languages under his breath, he balled up his fist and broke off the remaining glass from the car window, wincing as small cuts appeared on his hand.

Crawling out of the relatively miniscule car window was no easy feat for a full grown Italian man, but he managed somehow (he _was _the world's greatest hitman, after all). Landing neatly on the ground, he sighed and reached for his fedora, casually brushing off dust before placing it back on his head and turning around.

"Sir! Are you alri-" Dino looked frazzled and worried, not to mention a mess from having to crawl out of the remains of his car, but his face was completely filled with shock as soon as he saw the Arcobaleno. "Y-you-you're-" Behind him, Romario was staring slack-jawed, both boss and subordinate unable to form cohesive sentences.

"I what? You're just as useless as ever," Reborn sighed, flexing his long fingers as he inspected the fine cuts running all over his knuckles and palm.

"You're Reborn," Dino whispered, face becoming paler by the minute. "So it was really true…all of it…"

"Of course," Reborn drawled as he fingered his gun. "Now may I know why you decided to crash into my car today, hmm?"

Dino gulped and raised his hands in a defensive gesture. "I-it wasn't my fault! This is a one-way lane and you were driving the wrong wa-d-d-don't point that gun at me!"

Reborn scowled and reluctantly let his hand fall. "Really, useless as ever. I bet you're still a klutz when Romario is not around?" The young boss hung his head in shame. "Huh. You really are the same. How unusual."

"It's probably because the author was too lazy to come up with an alternative, interesting and entertaining personality," Romario supplied helpfully as his boss was moping.

"…what?"

"Nothing, Reborn-san."

He irritably clicked his tongue and frowned in thought. "Well, at any rate, we need to go steal a car or something. I saw a Lamborghini just around the corner. Or there's a Maserati a few streets down too."

Dino stopped gloomily sulking to look up. "Eh?! Wha...does that mean…why are you going to Namimori Middle?"

"I should be asking you that."

"It's because I found out Reali was heading to Japan and…oh, shit."

"Yes. Now would someone come and hot wire this ridiculously expensive Italian sports car or will I have to do it myself?"

* * *

Tsuna had sat through four explosions, fidgeting endlessly as his intuition was ringing alarm bells in his head. _Surely not…I mean, they won't be so stupid as to attack when two Reborns are here… But then again, my past opponents haven't exactly been sane…_

Hayato had been squirming in irritation next to him for a while now, and on the fifth explosion, he immediately leapt up. "Juudaime, I suggest sending m-"

"A-actually," he was interrupted by Tsunayoshi, who warily stood up, avoiding the angry gaze of Hayato. "I-I'm gonna go check on Kyoko-chan…especially if the Discipline Committee is going on a rampage again." He laughed nervously, and was met with three pairs of bewildered eyes.

His intuition was sending freaking smoke signals now. _Kyoko-chan? _ "Wait, Tsu-"

"Pleaseexcusemeandenjoytheres tofyourlunchwithoutmekaythan ksbye." With more haste than what was even remotely possible, Tsunayoshi bowed, rambled off a long string of words and ran, tripping over himself in his hurry to get down the stairs.

"W-wait! Juudaime!" Gokudera leapt up, abandoning his bento in favour of running after his beloved boss. Yamamoto scowled, muttered something darkly under his breath and grudgingly followed them, katana slung casually over his shoulders.

Tsuna's hand was still outstretched, having reached out in an attempt to grab his parallel self's sleeve moments earlier. "Did he just…run off? After Kyoko-chan?" His eyes widened. "He just...ran off after Kyoko-chan. He just ran off after Kyoko-chan! T-this...this _is _the September of my third year, right? Wait, or was it October. Hayato-kun? What date is it?!"

"...September the sixth, Juudaime."

"T-then…I should already be…it should already be…GAH! What the hell is happening here?!" Tsuna wailed frantically as his two guardians looked on uncomfortably.

Somewhere in the distance, a sixth explosion occurred.

* * *

"J-Juudaime! Where are you-" Gokudera stumbled, tripping over his own shoelaces. "Ah!"

Tsunayoshi turned around in surprise at the outburst, only to see Yamamoto scowling as he pulled Gokudera up roughly by the arm. "Ah, you two! You guys don't need to come, I can go by myself."

"Thanks," the Storm muttered before worriedly turning back to his boss. "But where are you going, Juudaime? If it's Hibari-san at it again, it'll be best not to go…"

Tsunayoshi blinked, and then laughed sheepishly. "Erm…well, it's just that Kyoko's at band practice now, and the explosion sounded as if it was coming from the direction of the band room…but I'm probably just being irrational right? Surely nothing will-"

There was a loud crash and the splintering of wood as a man flew through the wall and slammed against the opposite side with a painful thump. Bruised and bloody, he could only groan as his body slowly slid down, leaving an ugly red stain on the beige walls.

"-hap…pen…"

The three of them could only stand there gaping, before Tsunayoshi heard the sounds of scuffling and some swearing. He slowly turned his head towards the direction of the gaping hole to see fingers scrabbling to get a grip on the broken wood and plaster.

With a big huff, a girl pushed herself up and shakily placed her legs on the ground. Sighing, she stood up completely and dusted her black skirt off, an irritated frown clearly in place.

"Oi! I'm not done with you yet!" She stomped over to the injured man sitting on the ground moaning in pain, and delivered a sharp kick to his head. "This is what you get for talking too much! Fucking noisy bastards."

"Ouch," Yamamoto deadpanned. Gokudera shot him an incredulous look, a look that said _what are you doing? Shut up before we die!_

It was too late, though. The girl's head immediately swivelled in their direction, and she stared at them for a few moments before a sneer graced her face.

With one final kick and a groan of pain, she turned to fully face them, hands on her hip. "Oi, you. Vongola Decimo. Where?" she stated unceremoniously, her voice filled with impatience.

There was a short silence.

"…excuse me?!"

* * *

Up in the tree, Loreto could only sigh and shake the leaves out of his jet-black hair. "Really…it's because you're _so_ "refined" and "ladylike" that he doesn't send you out for missions often. And you wonder why you can't do reconnaissance," he muttered under his breath. His bored eyes flickered over to the teenage trio currently giving his partner bewildered looks. "Huh. They look weak."

Lips curved downward slightly, almost imperceptibly. "If it's like this…

"I'll probably have to step in soon. How troublesome."

* * *

Clara was getting increasingly irritated. "I asked you a question, you fucktards," she hissed. "Where. Is. The. Vongola. Decimo. Does it take that much to get it through your thick, useless skulls?" She had an obvious accent, and her words weren't that smooth, but it got the meaning across. Somewhat crudely, but whatever. Elegance wasn't the main goal.

"Okay, that's it," Yamamoto muttered, dark look on his face as he pulled out his katana. "You looking for a fight, _gaijin_?" (1)

She seemed to get even more pissed off at the outburst. Her eyes narrowed, and her voice became fiercer. "As if you could do anything, punk. I'm looking for Vongola so I can complete my job for Boss. Get out of the way if you can't do shit."

"You bitch!" Yamamoto finally snapped, drawing out his katana fully despite Gokudera's panicked protests. "I'm going to fucking kick your ass." In stance, he charged, rage seemingly radiating from his being.

Clara simply scowled and rolled her eyes. "This is why I hate people…" Muttering under her breath, she raised her right arm just as Yamamoto swung his sword down.

Tsunayoshi didn't know what he expected. He knew, however, that he didn't expect her arm to be covered in flickering green fire. He didn't expect Yamamoto's shocked look as he realised the sword wasn't cutting her-which wasn't possible, no one just _doesn't _get cut by a wicked sharp Japanese blade. And he definitely didn't expect the katana to suddenly-so it seemed to him-crackle to life, volatile electricity travelling through the shiny metal to the Rain's callused hands.

He didn't expect the hoarse, pain-filled screams.

The young Decimo and his right-hand man could only watch in horror as Yamamoto jerked and convulsed, limp body falling to the ground. The katana clattered to the floor in front of him, and smoke softly floated upwards from his charred uniform.

"Hmph." Clara let out a short bark of laughter. "Not even rings? Box weapons? What, don't tell me you guys don't even know how to use flames?"

The two who were still conscious gave her horrified, bewildered looks.

"Whatever," she scoffed, voice laced with impatience. "Now tell me where the Vongola Decimo is." A lock of light brown hair was twirled around her index finger, the expression on her face clear. _Do or Die. No negotiations._

"W-why," Tsunayoshi stammered, still horrifyingly fixated on his unconscious friend's form. "Why are you-"

"Boss told me to, of course," Clara cut in, voice a mixture of pride and impatience. "Because he has amazing plans that only someone such as him could come up with!" Her eyes, formerly filled with annoyance, now seemed to gain an excited gleam. "That's why I-"

Before she could continue, the whole corridor was abruptly filled with pure, marshmallow-y white smoke.

"What the hell is this?!" Tsunayoshi could hear her furious roar and the sound of clinking metal, as if she was reaching for a weapon. And then, suddenly, he couldn't hear anymore.

Or rather, he could only hear one thing.

"EXTREEEEEEEEEEME!"

* * *

**Gaijin: Japanese word meaning "non-Japanese", "outsider" or "alien". Typically used for foreigners. The word is politically incorrect, arguably negative in connotation and thus offensive, especially in this context. **

**Yes, I said the omake would be done by this chapter. But…I lied. It is 40% written. You are free to char-broil me and eat the remains along with your Christmas leftovers. Though I will taste awful. And I sincerely hope you're not a cannibal. **

**Oh dear. It seems that Yamamoto is getting beaten in every fight. Do not worry, people. He gets awesomer. Not that he isn't awesome already, Yamamoto fans, but…yeah. *puts foot in mouth***

**Again, kind of short, but I'm trying to release as many chapters as possible before school starts. Next week! One more week of freedom and then… T.T**

**Do you find the OCs…okay? I mean…likeable. No, wait, maybe not likeable…um…well, are they okay to read? Mary Sue-ish? I need feedback, since it's my first time writing OCs into a story. Gomenasai *bows* You are free to flame me specifically for the OCs…. **

**R&R! ^^**


	13. The Resolution to Fight

**Warnings: Cursing, OOC-ness (Reborn, why you so hard to write? T.T)**

**Happy reading! :D**

* * *

**Chapter 13**

**_The Resolution to Fight _  
**

"EXTREEEEEEEEEMEEEE! Where is this EXTREME pl-WHOA! THAT IS AN EXTREME KNIFE!"

Clara's arm was twitching. "It's not a knife, you moron. It's a dagger. _Dagger_."

"EXTREME! Can you cut vegetables with it?"

"…what?" The usually sharp-mouthed Mafioso was at a loss for words as she stared at the white-haired boy in front of her.

Who was growing a second head?!

"Nyahahaha! The great Lambo-sama is here!"

"When did you EXTREMELY get on my back?"

"The great Lambo managed to get on your back without you noticing! Nyahahahaha!"

"That is EXTREMELY cool!"

The three still conscious just gaped at Ryohei and Lambo as they continued on their incredibly loud, noisy, and boisterous conversation as if nothing had happened.

_This…is…nii-san?! _Tsunayoshi 's thoughts were a mess as he stared at his usually stoic Sun Guardian. _What the hell? And Lambo?! What. The. Hell._

Ryohei finally managed to peel a whining, screaming Lambo of his back, and was dangling him by the collar as he turned to face the trio. "So where EXTREMELY are we?" The white-haired boy finally kept silent for a few moments as he looked around. Curious eyes travelled to the broken wall, to the bloody stranger lying on the ground, to the girl who was currently fuming as she glared at him, to the charred but somewhat familiar body currently splayed out on the floor, and finally to the gaping Tsunayoshi and Gokudera.

For once, he didn't start yelling his head off. Instead, he cocked his head with a puzzled expression, looking back and forth between Yamamoto, Tsunayoshi, and Gokudera, all the while with the face of someone trying to solve a particularly challenging Mathematics equation.

"Sawada…Octopus head…Baseball idiot….all got extremely younger?"

"You know what, fuck you idiots," Clara snapped, dangerous aura starting to radiate from her being. "Either start fighting, tell me where the Vongola Decimo is, or fuck off and die."

Ryohei blinked, his poor (and severely under-utilised) mind still unable to process all that he was seeing. Lambo, however, was trashing in his iron-grip.

"WAHHHH! Lemme go, Turf-Top! There's a scary witch in front of the great Lambo-sama!"

"The fuck?!"

"Scary witch! Scary witch!" Lambo wailed, limbs flailing. "Get away from me! You're ugly!"

"You little-" The words were forced out through gritted teeth, right arm already being coated by crackling green flames. Tsunayoshi's eyes widened, and he raised his arm.

"No, wait! Lambo-"

_CLANG!_

The movement was so fast that it was a literal blur. One minute she was about to deep-fry the shit out of the snotty little brat, the next her arm had met the blade of a katana, weapon held in the hands of a smiling Rain Guardian who should have been on the floor.

"Haha! Seems like Tsuna's intuition was right after all, huh?" Takeshi laughed cheerily, but his grip was steady and his gaze calculating. He flickered a quick glance at his younger counterpart lying on the ground, before turning back to Clara, beaming face still perfectly intact. "Maa, and you seem strong too!"

"You again?! The hell…" the young woman muttered under her breath. "You guys own a fucking clone machine or something?"

"Haha, maybe! Say," Takeshi grinned roguishly. "How 'bout we have a duel? If you lose fair and square, you agree to retreat together with all your comrades. Deal?"

"Psh. Comrades? Like hell. And you really think you can beat me, bastard?"

"Haha! Let's fight fairly," his grin got even wider.

Tsunayoshi suddenly flinched and took a step forward. "Wa-wait! You can't! Sh-she has these weird powers and-" _even you will get hurt if you fight._

"Bring it on," Clara smirked and raised her fist, still coated with lively green flames. "I'll fucking beat your ass to hell and back."

"No!" Tsunayoshi all but screamed as he lunged forward, but it was too late, and too far, and he squeezed his eyes shut, not wanting to see how badly Takeshi would be beaten.

He waited.

"Shigure Soen Ryuu," a familiar voice said calmly. There was a swish of something travelling fast through air, and a gasp that seemed to come from Gokudera, and…

Was that water he heard?

* * *

"What…is this…" Hibari stood at the threshold of what was once his Discipline Committee Office, gripping his tonfas so tightly his knuckles were almost white.

It was, to be concise, a mess. The explosions had hit hard all around the school perimeter, but this particular block in the campus was hit the hardest. Shelves and cabinets had collapsed, books and papers scattering the dusty, slightly cracked floor. Fine lines were weaving their way up and down the walls, and the windows lay in shards and pieces at his feet. In the corner, his second-in-command Kusakabe was starting to stir, groaning softly under his breath as he made a move to get up only to fall back down again.

That wasn't what worried him the most though. Sure, he was really pissed at whoever was herbivorous enough to trash his office, but that could all be solved by biting said herbivore to death. And if he had the energy to make a sound, worrying about Kusakabe was below him.

No, none of those things were what worried him.

What worried him was the blood.

He could clearly see Kusakabe's injury, but that didn't warrant the blood-and the sheer _amount _of it. There was a small pool of crimson seeping into the carpet and flowing through the shards of glass, coating some pieces of previously transparent glass red. He could see blood smeared on the edge of his desk, drops of it trailing all the way to the entrance, and red smeared across the wooden paneling of the doorframe.

_Was…someone here? Another herbivore…_

"K-Kyoya!" He spun around to see his idiotic klutz of a tutor running towards him, relieved smile in place. His expression quickly formed into a scowl, and he raised his tonfas. "What, herbivore?"

"Ahaha, don't be so mean, Kyoya!" Dino smiled and ruffled his hair, causing him to splutter and blush before smacking him over the head with his weapon.

"Ow! Okay, okay, no violence ple-what happened?" Dino's eyes widened, hand dropping from his head as he finally noticed the state of the room.

Hibari frowned and shrugged, light blush still present on his face. "Hn. Like I know."

The Cavallone Don studied the blood traces all around the room, the uneasy feeling in his chest slowly getting stronger and stronger. "Kyoya…I'm getting worried, so could you just wait here while I go check the area?"

"Don't tell me what to do."

"Haha, be good alright!" Dino faked a reassuring smile, which earned him more stammering and blushing, before quickly turning on his heel and walking down the corridor.

_That sort of bleeding…and the glass…but how could shattering glass cause such a severe injury? Don't tell me a major artery…no, first I need to find out whose blood that was._

_Reali…what are they trying to pull here?_

* * *

"Crap."

They were completely surrounded. Granted, Tsuna always had the tendency of over-exaggerating certain situations, but he wasn't exaggerating when he said they were completely surrounded. By strange, foreign looking men wielding a varied assortment of sharp, deadly looking weapons and guns, no less.

"Juudaime, let me-" Hayato reached into his jacket to pull out his box weapon, but trailed off uncertainly when Tsuna shot him a warning look.

"Wait. Don't attack first. We should hear them out, or this might all lead to a huge misunderstanding." _Plus, my gloves are God knows where right now, so I'd _really _appreciate a peaceful resolution to all this. _Tsuna took a deep shuddering breath, before meeting the eyes of the man standing directly in front of him. He was humongous compared to the seventeen year old, obviously of European descent and wielding an enormous metal weapon that resembled a meat cleaver, but there was something in his eyes that gave Tsuna the feeling he wasn't exactly as threatening as he looked.

_Intuition, you better be correct. _"Um, excuse me. How might we help you?" The young boss tried his hand at a casual tone, offering a tentative smile. Slightly behind him, he could sense Hayato moving into a defensive stance, which did nothing to appease his quickening heartbeat.

The man's eyes narrowed for a moment; eyeing the two boys as if they were prey waiting to be slaughtered and cooked (the meat cleaver didn't exactly help). Tsuna was beginning to see his whole life flash before his eyes, when the man's mouth opened.

Tsuna held his breath.

And was rewarded with a long string of gruffly spouted gibberish.

He blinked, mystified, before turning to a fuming Hayato. "That…was Italian, wasn't it?"

"Juudaime! That bastard just called you a brat! Let me-"

"Hayato-kun, no! Qu-quickly ask what he wants," Tsuna's eyes flickered to the rest of his equally threatening-looking companions. The meat cleaver looked harmless in comparison.

"H-hai." Hayato scowled and turned to face the strangers, angrily muttering a whole bunch of fast and incomprehensible Italian (which Tsuna was sure included some swear words all over the place). It was returned with a string of equally incomprehensible sentences, which seemed to enrage Hayato even further, and soon dissolved into a full-out argument with both sides looking increasingly pissed off.

"H-hayato-kun," Tsuna pleaded, sweat starting to drip down his forehead. "I really don't think this-" His eyes widened and he jerked back abruptly as the meat cleaver flew over his head, crashing into the metal railing before clattering to the ground.

There was a short silence as both sides simply stared at the weapon, thrown in a fit of rage.

Then all hell broke loose.

With a roar, the strange men all surged forward at the same time. Hayato, cursing under his breath, fished out his box weapon in record time. "Uri-shit! Juudaime! You're weaponless; stay back!"

"Wait, haya-" Tsuna instinctively took a step back as the flaming kitten flew out of the red box, landing beside its master with a snarl.

"-to! Don't! Reborn is-" He was interrupted as a bullet went whizzing straight past him, nearly grazing the cheek of a surprised Storm Guardian, before embedding himself in the head of one of their opponents.

"_Co-_" The men didn't even have time to react before a wave of bullets came raining down on them, each lodging themselves cleanly into throats, chests, foreheads. It was like a domino effect, and soon Hayato and Tsuna found themselves standing amongst a whole pile of fallen bodies.

Tsuna spun around to face his tutor, who looked as if he had been attacked by a particular savage stray cat. "Reborn! What happened to you?"

Reborn scowled, slipping his gun back into the inside flap of his (slightly torn) suit jacket. "Why don't you ask that idiotic Bronco about that?"

"D-Dino? He did this to you? Is that even possi-wait! You met Dino?!" Tsuna exclaimed frantically.

"Yes, but shut up, it's not important. Hayato," he glanced at the Storm Guardian, who just stared at him bewilderedly as his box animal mewled and clawed at his trouser leg pitifully. "Keep Uri. Don't worry; those guys aren't dead, just unconscious. We need to hurry up and go."

"H-hai, Reborn-san!" Hayato shot to attention, quickly scrabbling for his box weapon. Tsuna, however, was just growing even more panicky.

"Wha-wait a minute! What's going on? Is it that Reali fami-" he trailed off when Reborn shot him a particular frosty glare.

"It doesn't matter. We need to go, _now_."

"What? Reborn, where do we need to go exactly?" The colour was slowly draining from Tsuna's face, and when he saw his normally confident tutor open and shut his mouth uncertainly, he could feel his blood turning cold. "Reborn?"

The ex-arcobaleno glanced at his student, before sighing and turning on his heel. "Start walking."

"R-reborn! What-"

"It's Dino. He called me just now."

Tsuna blinked and exchanged a look with Hayato, who looked equally mystified. "Dino? Is he hurt?"

Reborn hesitated before replying. "No, but…Dame-Tsuna, just follow me. We're heading to the hospital."

* * *

"Shit," Clara hissed as she fell to her knees, grasping her side as blood slowly started to seep into her clothes. "Rain flames? I thought…what the hell, bastard?"

Takeshi smiled and laughed sheepishly, katana resting on his shoulders. "Haha, guess I surprised you, huh?"

"Damn it! You fucking piece of shit," the girl winced as she struggled to her feet, hand reaching into the pocket of her skirt. "You think this is over?" she growled. "I'm going to-fuck!" A black boot suddenly appeared out of nowhere, slamming into the back of her head and causing her to double over in pain.

"'scuse me." A boy straightened up, dusting off his clothes, and looked down at her with a vaguely bored expression. "You wouldn't have shut up otherwise."

"F-fuck you…" she groaned, clutching her head.

"Still not enough?" Loreto sighed and looked up at Takeshi, who was staring at him with a bemused smile on his face. His eyes flickered back and forth between him and the unconscious Yamamoto lying on the ground, glancing at a bewildered Gokudera and Tsunayoshi for a short moment, before focusing his gaze solely on Takeshi, evidently having drawn his own conclusions. "I apologise. My name is Loreto. Nice to meet you," he said in a bored, monotonous voice. "May I know what yours is?"

Takeshi blinked for a moment before laughing. "Haha, sure! I'm Yamamoto Takeshi! Nice to meet ya too! By the way," he grinned, swiftly removing his katana from his shoulders and holding it at his side in a casual movement. "Do you always speak like that?"

Loreto's eyes narrowed. "Why?"

"Haha, just asking! Because it's kinda jarring to hear you introduce yourself like that, is all!"

"Oi," Clara's voice was weak but filled with anger. "You fucking useless idiot, kill them already."

Loreto didn't bother glancing back at her, just sighed again. "No."

"…what?"

"I said no. You failed. We're leaving."

"You-" Her eyes widened, and she struggled to stand up before her knees collapsed again and she fell back to the ground. "What the fuck-"

"I deeply apologise for the lack of a challenge presented to you. We have compromised your pride." Loreto's voice was completely void of emotion as he bowed slightly while addressed Takeshi, whose smile was starting to falter.

Ignoring the panicked protests coming from his comrade, he calmly fished out a ring from the depths of his jacket and slipped it on. Almost instantaneously, purple flames started to swirl around his feet.

"Again, I apologise. It was a pleasure meeting you and…" Dark brown eyes flickered and rested on a speechless Tsunayoshi.

"I hope we'll work well together from here on."

Takeshi's eyes widened, and he took a step forward. "Wait!" As he reached out, the Cloud flames quickened in pace, travelling all the way up until both Loreto and Clara were completely out of sight. When they finally dispersed again, both were nowhere to be seen.

_What…? _Tsunayoshi stumbled backwards and fell to the floor, body trembling. _What just-_

"Y-yamamoto!" His head snapped towards the direction of the injured friend he had momentarily forgotten, as Gokudera ran over and knelt beside him. _Yamamoto…_ Struggling to his feet again, he rushed over as his Storm Guardian was attempting to turn the unconscious boy over.

"EXTREME!" Ryohei took this moment to suddenly regain his bodily functions again. "THAT WAS EXTREMELY CONFUSING! AND THE COW IS EXTREMELY ASLEEP!"

Takeshi faltered for a bit before facing Ryohei with his usual smile. "Haha, I think Lambo-kun was a bit scared!" He walked over and scooped up the child, who had lost it and fainted in fear around the same time Takeshi appeared. "Ah, nii-san, could you go help Yamamoto-kun over there? I think he might be hurt."

"EXTREME! I DON'T UNDERSTAND, BUT I SHALL EXTREMELY GO HELP YAMAMOTO NO. 2!"

"Haha, thanks nii-san! And then after that we need to go look for Tsuna and the others-" He was interrupted by a shrill ringing sound. The pocket of his pants suddenly came to life, buzzing violently. He quickly reached into it and pulled out a sleek silver cell phone.

_Maa, maa, when did this get here? Ah, I should answer it, right?_ He pressed the green answer button with his thumb before placing it at his ear.

"Moshi moshi? Ah, Haya-chan! Haha, Haya-chan is Haya-chan, that's why...Eh? Hospital? Is Tsuna alright?" Takeshi's eyebrows furrowed in a rare show of worry as the rest of them quickly glanced over at him upon hearing his words. "He's okay? Then…what?" Takeshi faltered and then laughed uneasily. "Haha, this isn't something to joke about you know, Haya-chan? Huh? You're not…that's…alright, I'll tell them."

He removed the phone from his ear, took a breath and finally glanced at the still conscious trio with a smile. "Nii-san, can you carry Yamamoto-kun? Haya-chan says to go to Namimori Hospital."

"What?" Tsunayoshi shot up abruptly. "Why-is someone hurt?"

Takeshi didn't stop smiling, but the smile didn't quite reach his eyes. "Haha, it's nothing you guys have to worry about! We should head there quickly."

"But-"

"C'mon, let's go! Nii-san, can you handle it?"

"I can EXTREMELY piggy-back him!"

"Haha, well, we should hurry then!" He started walking briskly towards the stairs, and was quickly overtaken by Ryohei, who had enthusiastically decided to jog. Tsunayoshi and Gokudera exchanged uneasy looks, before finally following the two.

* * *

He couldn't understand what they were saying.

The doctor's lips were still moving, but for the life of him Tsuna couldn't understand a single word. He wasn't even paying attention anymore.

"...laceration…globe penetration…most likely optic neuropathy, as well."

"Can't you do an operation or something?" Dino interjected frantically. "I've heard of eye transplants-"

"I'm sorry, but that is only the transplanting of the cornea. Optic nerves are part of the brain, and-"

"But!"

"Dino," Reborn, who had been mostly silent up to this point, glared at the Bronco. "Shut up, you're not helping." Dino opened his mouth as if to protest, but then reluctantly closed it again.

"What," Reborn, satisfied, turned to addressed the doctor. "What is the likelihood of this injury leading to blindness, in this case?"

Tsuna sucked in a sharp breath, and his head frantically shot up to stare at Reborn. The tutor steadily ignored his gaze.

The middle-aged man, hair already greying near the roots, hesitated before answering. "The…shard of glass penetrated the eye so deeply that the optic nerve was physically damaged. In these cases-"

Tsuna stopped listening. He could hear Hayato, shocked into silence for once, asking if he was alright, could feel him place a concerned hand on his shoulder, but he was blanking it all out.

This had happened only once before back in middle school, when Takeshi had been injured so badly his life was hanging in the balance. But this…he didn't know whether it was the shock of being sent to a parallel world carrying over, or just because of the person involved, but the terrified feeling in the pit of his stomach seemed to be double what he felt two years ago.

"-na. Dame-Tsuna." He hadn't noticed the shadow hanging overhead, but he quickly looked up to see Reborn staring down at him.

"Dame-Tsuna, did you hear me? No?" He sighed and took of his fedora, running a hand through his spiky hair. "Useless students…I said, the explosives used by the enemy weren't normal. That's why his injuries are so severe. It probably involved flames, but we've sent the remains to the Cavallone family's lab for analysis. And I've already contacted Byakuran; he should be here by tomorrow morning, so-"

"Can I see him?" Reborn faltered and stared at his student. Hayato, still shell-shocked, widened his eyes, hand slowly slipping from his boss's shoulder as Tsuna uttered his first words ever since he'd been informed that Hibari Kyoya, their ace, had been admitted into hospital.

"Can I see him?" Tsuna repeated, more urgently this time. "Reborn, can I see Kyoya?"

Reborn's lips parted slightly, before he pressed them together in a straight line. "No. Not now. His eye wasn't the only part of his body injured; he lost a lot of blood, and is in critical state right now. They're not allowing anybody in." Tsuna's body seemed to deflate. "But what matters is that he's alive. Right now, that's the most important thing."

"No, it's not!" Tsuna finally snapped and flew up from his seat.

"Juu-" Hayato quickly leapt to his feet and reached out towards his boss, but stopped as Tsuna started speaking.

"It's not! The most important thing is that we weren't taking this seriously! None of us were. We were just treating this as one big joke; even if we had to fight, we probably wouldn't have given it our best shot. That's why, when they attacked…" The Sky bit his lip and hung his head, clenched fists trembling. "I couldn't do anything about it. That's why he's hurt.

"It's…the Reali family you were talking about is responsible for this, right? Reborn?" The tutor silently averted his gaze, and Tsuna continued.

"So…if we stay here, and we give our all into training…if that's what it takes to defeat them, then we'll do it." Tsuna finally looked up, and his eyes were a blazing orange. His words, when he next spoke, were calm and commanding.

"For hurting my family like this, I definitely won't forgive them so easily."

* * *

**STOP**

**Before you flame me for this, hear me out.**

**I in now way did this for fun, nor did I do this because I hate Kyoya and this is my way of bashing him (I have his face on a file, a mousepad, and a pillow, for Christ's sake).**

**My reason for doing this, if it wasn't already obvious, was so that canon!Tsuna and the rest actually had a reason to fight. I mean, really, if you were dragged into a parallel world and told to fight some people you don't know even, and train some people you honestly have not much of a connection to, would you really do it? If it were me, I would just be constantly complaining about the shitty situation. For Tsuna & co., they'd just do it so they can get home, which is a good reason, but for me it just wasn't very compelling. **

**So. Concrit would be appreciated, suggestions on where to improve plot would be nice, but any review along the lines of "OMG I HATE YOU HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO MY DARLING KYOYA" will be promptly ignored.**

**Right, I'm done ranting. **

**The omake is...almost done...kind of...but this chapter is extremely long for me, so I'm kind of tired right now...I shall post it with the next chapter.**

**EDIT 30/12/12: I forgot to say this, but I know shit about eye injuries, so Wikipedia must be credited as my go-to research place. In fact...if I sound overly smart about anything, it's probably Wikipedia...**

**EDIT 30/12/12: WAY too many edits, but I have a crap memory so bear with me. I've been asked this, so I'm gonna add it. As to why I chose Kyoya, it's because I also wanted to reinforce the point that though the characters in Reborn _are _awesome and badass, they are not infallible, and infallible is something Amano-sensei seems to like making Kyoya out to be (him being the strongest, the ace etc.) Originally it was supposed to be someone else, but I reassessed my plot and changed it to Kyoya instead. To all Kyoya fans, I'm sorry! :/**

**R&R! ^^**


	14. Shield Patch

**Warning: Swearing**

**Happy reading! :D**

* * *

**Chapter 14**

**_Shield Patch_  
**

"No."

"Yes."

"I _said _no."

"And _I _said freaking yes, omnivore," Kyoya growled out through gritted teeth. His face was turned in the general direction of Tsuna, who was currently sighing and shaking his head.

"You can't remove the shield patch. It's there to protect the injury-"

"On both eyes?"

"The other eye will move and aggravate it. Please just stay still, Kyoya-kun. Alright?" Tsuna leaned forward in his armchair and pleaded, causing Kyoya to huff and fall back into his bed, muttering something darkly under his breath. Tsuna allowed himself a small smile.

"You know, if you hadn't tried to give the doctor a concussion with the IV drip, he might have been more reasonable when negotiation your freedom of movement." Kyoya scowled-or tried to scowl, at least-and _tsk_ed in irritation.

"I woke up unable to see a thing, and the only thing that herbivore could do was pat me on the shoulder. He _deserved _that concussion." Tsuna's smile faltered slightly, eyes darkening a little as he remembered the incident.

The Cloud guardian had only remained unconscious for one day, even when he was drugged on morphine. The minute he woke up, though, was utter chaos. Despite Tsuna's reassurances and attempted restraints, he had panicked and punched the nearest nurse. Tsuna couldn't forget the initial fright on Kyoya's face-seeing the usually strong and infallible skylark unable to even see on his own was unsettling, but seeing his frustration at the situation was even worse for Tsuna.

Tsuna impulsively leaned forward, reaching forward to grasp his hand. He winced slightly as Kyoya's hand jerked in surprise, sending the IV drip swinging precariously, long translucent wire swinging rhythmically.

"What the hell? Omni-" Kyoya's head snapped in Tsuna's direction, wiggling his fingers to break free of Tsuna's grip. The hand covering his, however, was stubbornly vice-like and refused to let go. "Let go."

"I won't."

"…What?"

"I won't," Tsuna stated firmly, eyes trained straight on Kyoya even though the boy was unable to meet his gaze fully. "I won't let go. I'll definitely find the people that did this to you, and when I do, they'll pay for it."

Kyoya's lips parted slightly in surprise, before he scoffed and turned away. "I don't need your pity."

A soft smile graced Tsuna's lips, and he laughed lightly. "Ah, but _I_ need you. All of you. Much, much more than I would like to admit."

* * *

"Umm…" Tsunayoshi looked at the two people standing on the school roof in dismay. "What are you two doing here? Ah! Not that I'm trying to be rude or anything-"

"Are you kidding me?" Hayato scowled and stubbed out his cigarette, while Takeshi chuckled softly and twirled his bamboo sword around in his hands. "Have you idiots completely forgotten about yesterday? What if they come back, hmm? Like hell you can defend yourself." He muttered the last part under his breath, dark scowl ever-present on his face.

Next to him, Tsunayoshi could clearly hear Gokudera's audible gulp. He wasn't feeling too brave himself; Yamamoto was ordered to stay home for the day by the doctors, and if the strong Rain guardian couldn't hold against these enemies, he really wasn't looking forward to facing them again.

Takeshi exhaled softly through his nose before straightening up, amiable smile on his face. "Maa, maa, don't be so grouchy, Haya-chan. If you wanna know, Tsuna asked us to protect you while we're here."

"H-huh? You mean Juudaime's other self…?" Gokudera stuttered out, before he blushed and trailed off, seemingly regretting his decision to speak. Sensing his discomfort, Takeshi grinned encouragingly and quickly continued before his brash comrade could get a word in.

"Haha, yeah! Tsuna's at the hospital now, because of…um, well…"

"Just say it; why are you being half-assed about this?" Hayato frowned and turned to the duo, eyes dark and coldly unforgiving. "Juudaime's there because that Hibari got injured fighting enemies. Enemies who, I might add, came to get _you_."

"Haya-chan…"

"So while you were sitting around acting useless, our ace got seriously injured and blinded in one eye, fighting enemies who you idiots should have been handling. And _now_, while we should be with Juudaime supporting him, we're here protecting you guys instead. Are you satisfied now, then?"

An awkward silence hung in the air as Hayato stopped talking, his cold gaze on Tsunayoshi never faltering. Takeshi was opening and closing his mouth, cheerful smile comically frozen in place as he engaged in an internal battle over how to respond.

He nervously rubbed the back of his head. "Erm…well…haha…"

"I'm sorry."

Hayato's eyes widened imperceptibly, and Gokudera's and Takeshi's heads immediately snapped towards Tsunayoshi, who was currently staring down at his feet. At his sides, his fists were clenched so tight his knuckles were turning a pasty white.

"I-I mean…I'm sorry that he got injured…and…well, I can't do anything. Without Reborn, without my guardians…" Tsunayoshi's voice faltered and he bit his lip. "And to be honest, these new powers and stuff…it's all really frightening. Tha-that's why…that's why I've decided to do my best in training!" His eyes were squeezed shut and he rushed out the last few words, face blushing furiously whilst everyone was staring at him open-mouthedly.

"Juu-Juudaime…!" Gokudera's eyes were practically tearing up in pride at his boss's outburst. Hayato looked unimpressed.

"You mean to say you were going to do a half-assed job before this?" The Storm Guardian deadpanned emotionlessly, causing both Gokudera and Tsunayoshi to stiffen.

"N-nononono! I didn't mean-!" Tsunayoshi held out his arms, shaking his head so violently it looked like it might snap off any second. As the young Decimo frantically protested his innocence, he didn't notice Hayato's eyes softening slightly, until the Storm Guardian sighed in irritation.

"Ok, I get it. Shut up." Tsunayoshi's mouth snapped shut, and a bead of sweat trickled down his face.

"Haya-chan," Takeshi sighed wearily, finally regaining the composure to talk. "That was rude."

"Like I give a damn."

"Maa, maa." Takeshi smiled crookedly. "Well, why don't we have lunch now? I'm sure you're hungry?"

"Ah-" Tsunayoshi glanced back and forth between the two older males nervously, before hesitantly continuing.

"Then let's eat together then."

* * *

"Gokudera's house?" Takeshi cocked his head to the side inquisitively, while Hayato's eyes narrowed.

"Um, yeah," Gokudera said softly, not making eye contact with either of them. "Juudaime needs to go to my house to pick up something for school. But," He looked up suddenly. "You don't have to come or anything! It's troublesome and-"

"Haha, what're you saying? 'Course we'll come! We're here to protect you, ne?" Takeshi laughed good-naturedly as they walked past the school gates, attracting curious glances from the other students. Not every day you see two student teachers acting so friendly with the school kids, after all.

"Besides, I kinda wanna see how different you are from our world. Right, Haya-chan?"

Hayato scoffed. "Don't be stupid."

"Um…if it's all right with you, then…" Gokudera stammered and blushed slightly, hands gripping his bag tightly. "Ah! But my mom will be home, so how do I explain-?"

The reaction was instantaneous. Hayato's eyes widened and he spun around to face Gokudera in shock; Takeshi's smile slid off his face in an instant. The temperature seemed to drop almost ten degrees. Gokudera froze, and Tsunayoshi's eyes flickered nervously, as if trying to figure out what just happened.

"What did you say?" Hayato's voice was so soft it was almost a whisper, but it was so chillingly deadly that Gokudera winced and shrunk back.

"A-ano, I just said…that…my mom would be home?"

"Are you fucking playing with me?"

"Hayato," Takeshi stepped forward, placing a hand on his shoulder to stop him from lunging forward. His frown seemed out of place, the lines creasing his brow almost unnatural. "Look, calm down."

"How can I calm down? This guy-"

"Right! How about we leave? We're going to Gokudera's house, right?"

"U-um-"

"Excellent! Let us make haste!" With a semi-violent shove, Takeshi pushed a furious Hayato forward, plastering a rather fake smile on his face.

"B-but-"

The Rain Guardian leaned to the side to look over Hayato's shoulder, and Gokudera gulped; that smile on his face went something along the lines of, _explain soon or die now. _

"H-hai! Juudaime, let's go!"

"Hah? But-?!"

There were many mysteries to be discovered, but the absolving of this particular one, Takeshi thought grimly, was going to be unpleasant.

* * *

**A/N: School is hell. So naturally the length of updates will be hellish (read:short).**

**Expect weekly updates from now on. Most short, some long, depending on how much work I'm getting.**

**I swear the omake is gonna become a running gag in the author's note or something. Like, 'the forever invisible and nonexistent omake'. Jkjk, but really. I'm almost done. I don't know why it's taking so long, it's not even that long == I feel unaccomplished...**

**R&R! **


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